The Coimbatore Corporation received Rs. 26 crore from the Government of India — the last instalment of funds it had to release to the urban local body for implementing the storm water drain (SWD) project.
The Corporation is implementing the SWD and a few other projects with funds from the Government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme. According to sources, the Government released the funds in New Delhi after conducting a meeting to review the progress of works. For release of funds, the urban local body ought to have utilised 75 per cent of the fund released in the earlier instalment. The Government, however, contributes only 50 per cent of the total project cost of Rs. 180 crore. The State Government contributes 20 per cent and the Coimbatore Corporation 30 per cent. The State Government would release its share of the remaining fund along with the Central Government’s, the sources said and added that the State Government would release Rs. 9.85 crore. The Corporation had divided the SWD project into seven packages to implement the scheme in the old Corporation area of 60 wards. Of the seven packages it had completed the fifth package, which was executed by SEW Infrastructure Limited, Hyderabad. The project involved constructing drain for 83.59 km and 340 culverts at a cost of Rs. 19.06 crore.
The civic body’s objective is to collect the run off water from roads and take it through the drain to the nearest natural drain – Sanganoor Pallam, Karupparayan Odai, etc. The water will finally reach River Noyyal. The Corporation started the SWD work in September-October 2010 with a mandate to the contract-companies to complete the work between 12 and 20 months depending upon the drain length. In executing the project, the Corporation had to face opposition from residents who did not want trees to be felled. The civic body agreed with the residents’ views and bypassed the tree trunks. The Corporation would complete the work by July 2013, the sources added.
