The Coimbatore Corporation on Friday resolved to request the National Highways Department to acquire a piece of private land at the southern side of Big Bazaar Street located between the Lanka Corner Railway Bridge and the Royal Theatre to widen the section for eliminating traffic bottlenecks.
This was among the 19 resolutions passed during an urgent meeting of the civic body which lasted just over 15 minutes.
Reading out the resolutions, Mayor S.M. Velusamy said that the purpose was to ease the traffic coming from the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and Coimbatore Railway Junction immediately on crossing the railway bridge, which was narrow.
Modification
Further, the Corporation was also going in for compulsory land acquisition at Ward 37 in the East Zone for modifying the road design to comply with road safety norms and facilitating smooth flow of traffic at the S-bend junction where Thaneerpandhal Road, Vilankurichi Road, Codissia Road and Gandhi Maanagar Junction meet.
Since a lot of people commute through this place which also has heavy bus traffic, compulsory land acquisition was being taken up to reduce the accidents, which were happening with increasing frequency. The civic body also passed a resolution to remove three houses that had encroached upon a piece of land at the SIHS Colony.
Since a railway bridge construction was under way in the area, the public were suffering from a lack of alternative roads to reach the Tiruchi Road from SIHS Colony and vice versa.
People are now using a road that passes through Ganga Nagar, Mahalakshmi Nagar, and reaches Tiruchi Road via Nilikonampalayam.
However, the encroachments on these roads were causing problems for the public. Hence the labourers occupying these three houses would be relocated to a housing quarters constructed under JNNURM and these roads would be widened.
Further, the Corporation also resolved to acquire a piece of private land to create a link road to connect Ramanathapuram to Tiruchi Road via Thiruvalluvar Nagar and Sama Naidu Street.
The Mayor said that such a move would benefit more than one lakh people and ease the traffic flow in the area.
Under the Integrated Urban Development Mission (IUDM) Scheme, a total of 25 tipper lorries were going to be acquired at a total cost of Rs. 1.92 crore through ‘e-tender’ process for solid waste management.
Containers
Also under the e-tender process, Mr. Velusamy informed the Council that 300 metal sheet containers of 660-litre capacity and another 900 metal sheet containers of 1,100-litre capacity, at a total cost of Rs. 5.41 crore.
The Corporation also passed a resolution to widen the main road between Kamarajar Road and Nilikonampalayam as the population in the area was increasing rapidly, resulting in increased vehicular traffic.
The road was proposed to be expanded from the present 20 feet to 40 feet for decongesting the traffic flow.
The Mayor also informed that Rs. 8.79 crore was being allotted for constructing shops on Corporation land.
While Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDCO) was originally allotted this task, the loan TUFIDCO had sought for this purpose never materialised. Considering the public benefit, the local body was taking this up.
