Corporation plans to launch major schemes

The Coimbatore Corporation plans to launch four major schemes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) by the end of this month. Efforts are on to have the schemes launched on February 24 during the visit of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, according to sources in the civic body.

The Corporation's main office itself is witnessing a flurry of activity. Meetings throughout the day on the schemes provide a clear indication of the civic body's intention to start the project that have been pending for years. The Pilloor Phase II drinking water scheme for Rs.114 crore, solid waste management for Rs.96 crore, the first phase of rehabilitation of slum dwellers in multi-storeyed tenements at Rs.58.81 crore and a new bus stand on Mettupalayam Road at Rs.6 crore are projects that are set for a take off.

The Pilloor scheme tops the list of priorities as the city finds both the Siruvani scheme and the Pilloor Phase I scheme inadequate. The Siruvani scheme's fortunes always hinge on a good South West Monsoon.

It failed from 2000 to 2003 and this had plunged the city and the suburbs dependent on the scheme into crisis. The new scheme had been planned to meet the rising demand for drinking water, taking into consideration the growth over the next 20 years.

The scheme for solid waste management aims to end complaints of poor sanitation across the city.

The Rs.96-crore project involves door-to-door collection of garbage and disposal through the waste-to-manure method or landfill. The objective is to ensure that not one bit of the more than 500 tonnes of garbage generated every day lies along roads or open sites. There is, however, no clue to how collection from each house or commercial building is to be handled. The Corporation is not very open about private participation though the mission is open to it.

There is provision even for community participation in waste disposal. This can be put into practice if there is localised composting or decentralised management either at the level of zones or wards of the Corporation. There is no open declaration as yet on whether collection will be by private parties for a fee or by the Corporation's conservancy workers. Officials of the civic body are into hectic efforts to persuade the State Government to regularise nearly 800 temporary workers, suggesting that the Corporation wants to have enough workers to collect garbage from the nearly 2.5-lakh houses, a number of commercial establishments and even petty shops.

But, a source in the Corporation claims that the regularisation is being insisted upon by a section of the councillors as they fear that the workers may not be regularised to make way for total privatisation.

The bus stand at Mettupalayam is a project that has been pending for more than five years. The stand will be used by buses for Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam.