Mangalore City Corporation has planned to replace sodium street lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) as they will save 30 per cent of energy being used now, outgoing Mayor Rajani Dugganna said on Friday.
Ms. Dugganna will step down as Mayor on Monday as elections to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held on that day.
She said that the civic body had invited bids for replacing sodium street lamps with CFL lamps. The corporation had disconnected power supply to some borewells that were not in use. It had initiated steps to replace the old pumpsets at water supply stations with new ones. This would also help in saving energy. The Mayor said that of the Rs. 27.58-crore property tax estimated under the self-assessment scheme (SAS) for 2010-11, the civic body had collected Rs. 23.26 crores till January. K. Sudhir Shetty, outgoing chairperson of the Standing Committee on Town Planning and Improvement, said that 39 km of roads in the jurisdiction of the corporation had been concreted with the financial grant from the State Finance Commission and Rs. 100 crore special grant from the State Government announced in 2008-09 budget in two instalments of Rs. 50 crore each for 2008-09 and 2009-10.
He said of the Rs. 100 crore, the Government had released Rs. 86 crore to the civic body and Rs. 77.16 crore had been paid towards various works, including the roadworks.
Mr. Shetty said that under Rs. 100-crore additional grant (second instalment) promised to the civic body, Rs. 25 lakh would be given to each ward for asphalting roads.
Mr. Shetty said that the corporation had planned to introduce smartcards for issuing water bills. It would be first introduced for commercial and apartment connections. The civic body would have to replace the water meters at its own cost before introducing smartcard-based water billing. Under the proposed billing method, whoever took water connection would get a message on their cellphone when the bill collector swiped the card. The civic body had invited bids for this. Rajendra, outgoing Deputy Mayor, Shantha R, outgoing chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Health, Education and Social Justice, and Roopa D. Bangera, outgoing chairperson of the Committee on Taxation, Finance and Appeals were present.
