The Corporation should initiate steps to get rid of pigs in a ward in the South Zone, said a participant. The second said that the Corporation should immediately repair roads in Kurichi, where digging for a development work was under way and the recent rain had left the road slushy.
The third participant wanted the Corporation repair street lights in Podanur and the fourth certified that Coimbatore was the best city in Tamil Nadu.
There were many more grievances at the meeting the Coimbatore Corporation had arranged here on Tuesday for the members of the public, representatives of civil society organisations, urban planning experts and others to prepare a city development plan (CDP) for the second biggest city in Tamil Nadu.
The CDP would serve as a basis for the Corporation to devise new schemes and projects for the city keeping in mind the needs of the city for the next 15 to 20 years and forward the details of the projects to the Central and State Governments for financial assistance. Mayor S.M. Velusamy, who presided over the meeting, said that the aside from the interface for the CDP preparation, the Corporation would distribute 5,000 questionnaires to the members of the public to get their suggestions on what the city needed in the next two decades.
DMK Councillor Meena Loganathan sought flyovers for the city, early implementation of the delayed road-over bridges across railway level crossings, subways and better implementation of the solid waste management project. AIADMK Councillors K.R. Jayaram, S.R. Arjunan and a few others made use of the opportunity to reiterate the demands they had made earlier for the development of their wards.
North Zone Chairman P. Rajkumar suggested that the proposed flyover in Gandhipuram should be linked with the road-over bridge across the railway level crossing near Textool, Ganapathy.
He also suggested widening into four lane the Sathyamangalam Road.
Suggestions for having a mass rapid transport project found a mention in the meeting, thanks to mentions by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Youth Wing Secretary V. Easwaran and a city resident, S. Hariharan. Head of the Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) C.R. Swaminathan suggested the authors of the CDP include the need for a museum and planetarium — both long-pending demands and have a relook at the land classification in various parts of the city.
R. Raveendran, also of RAAC, spoke about the need for source segregation of waste.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, Mr. Velusamy said that the Coimbatore was one of the 40 cities in the country that was declared ‘solar city’.
Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu said that the Corporation would also make available online the questionnaire on its website. S. Baskar of the IC Centre for Governance, an NGO, made a presentation on city development.
