The Mangaluru City Corporation will take up development works worth ₹121 crore, covering widening of traffic junctions and construction of roadside drains and footpaths, this year, according to Mayor Kavita Sanil.
Addressing presspersons on Friday, she said that bids have been invited to build footpaths and drains in 57 places and widen 20 traffic junctions.
The Mayor appealed to people in the city to spare their land for those works under the provision of transfer of development rights (TDR) which has been made attractive now by the government.
She said that the civic body has begun dredging 96 major stormwater drains ahead of monsoon.
A squad with a vehicle and minimum five workers has been constituted to attend to problems caused by rain, wind and floods in the city for three months from June.
This squad would be available only throughout the night. In addition, two wards together would have one squad with a vehicle and 10 workers to attend to rain related issues during the day during monsoon.
People could call up 2220306 or 2220319 during rainy season for help.
She said that the revenue section in the corporation would go paperless from Monday. There would be no manual files and there would be software-based files.
The Mayor said that she was hopeful that the State government would sanction at least ₹130 crore for paying compensation to land losers when water at Thumbe vented dam would be raised to seven mts high.
It is estimated that 500 acres would be submerged if water was stored at the same height.
Later, Mayor visited Bejai to inspect the waste water flowing in the KSRTC Junction in front of Bharat Mall.
Ms. Sanil alleged that it was being let out by the mall, especially from a food joint in its top floor. The mall let out the water especially during evenings posing problems to pedestrians and vehicles. When vehicles tried to avoid waste water flowing on one side of the junction it led to many accidents, she said.
But Mallikarjun, the manager of the mall, denied the charges. He said that it was flowing from the drain.
At this point the Mayor instructed the corporation officials to dig the spot where waste water oozed out to find out its source.
She said that the mall has been served with a notice to this effect.
