Between Sukhrawarpettai in the north and R.G. Street-Raja Street Junction in the south and Raja Street Four Corner in the east to Raja Street Thermutti in the West stretches Ward 80 of the Coimbatore Corporation.
It houses the important, busy and congested commercial streets of Coimbatore - R.G. Street, Thomas Street, Edayar Street, M.N.G. Street, Thiyagi Kumaran Street. The commercial face of the Ward ensures that it sees heavy floating population during the day. This leads to so much traffic congestion that there is hardly space for pedestrians to walk on R.G. Street and other areas, say residents.
To ease the congestion, the corporation will do well to take steps to shift the transport offices on Thomas Street and Edayar Street, says resident S. Balaji. Each of the offices there sees a minimum of two or three lorries a day moving in and around and remaining parked there for loading and unloading goods. The lorries leave very little space for two-wheelers leave alone pedestrians.
To tackle the problem, some years ago there was a move to shift the transport offices but it did not progress beyond the discussion stage, he adds.
Heavy concentration of people in the streets is also a challenge, says K. Athinarayanan, a former Councillor. Such high concentration of people means more waste generation. The corporation’s bins on T.K. Street on M.N.G. Street get quickly fill up and there is very little the civic body could do because there is hardly any space for more bins.
Leaks in old sewer lines and drinking water pipelines are the other challenges that the residents. The corporation should in phases replace the old pipes and lines with new ones, demands A. Gurusamy, a MNG Street resident.
New Storm water drain in the Ward is another item on residents’ demand list. Mr. Athinarayanan says that the last Council had sanctioned Rs. 1.48 crore and the Corporation was expected to take up the work soon.
