The administrative office of Thuvakudi Municipality, a bustling town en route Thanjavur, is likely to be shifted to a new building, presently under construction, by October 2010.
The Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration and Water Supply), Government of Tamil Nadu, Niranjan Mardi, during his Tiruchi visit earlier this month, took stock of the pace of works and issued instructions to officials for timely completion for the project.
In the very next month of being accorded administrative sanction during July 2009, the technical sanction was given for the new building. In a month from then, tenders were let, and the work order for construction of the building at a cost of Rs. 65 lakh was given on October 22. While the Government sanctioned Rs.15 lakh, the rest was mobilised from the general fund, official sources said.
A full-fledged administrative building for the local body, that was a selection grade town panchayat till five years ago, has been long overdue. Only after it was upgraded as a third grade municipality on July 5, 2004, did the local body come out with a proposal for the project.
The local body finalised the project proposal towards the end of 2008 after SIDCO (Small industries Development Corporation) handed over its plot of land measuring 66,656 square metres along the main road. According to the Municipality Chairman E.Kayambu, the encroachments on the plot that was obtained after a lengthy ordeal had to be evicted.
The municipality obtained approval from the Town and Country Planning department for construction of the building measuring 535.07 square metres on June 22, 2009. The new administrative building will house the offices of the Chairman, the Executive Officer, Municipal Engineer, Town Planning, Revenue, Sanitary, Administrative, and Computer sections. The meeting hall will be on the first floor.
For the last five years, the municipal office has been functioning from an octagonal shaped floor created at the base of a huge overhead tank. Till then, the office used to function from a small building close by.
The spacious building befits the recognition of Thuvakudi town as home to the National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi, the State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, the Government Polytechnic, the Government Arts College and a few other institutions. With a population of 35,428 as per 2001 census, the municipality with a jurisdictional area of 15 square kilometres is an important residential and industrial town and has in its ambit the SIDCO industrial estate with more than 100 companies. Of the 21 wards in the local body, seven are reserved for women and two for SC/ST.
