Beautification of Coimbatore for Tamil conference begins

OFF TO A START: (Left) Coimbatore Mayor R. Venkatachalam (third left) and Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra (second left) launching on Monday the works to beautify Coimbatore in view of the World Classical Tamil Conference. (Right) An image of the roadside park and pedestrian pavement that will come up under the beautification scheme. Photos: S. Siva Saravanan and Special Arrangement.

The Coimbatore Corporation launched on Monday a Rs. 4.15 crore project to create roadside parks and lay pavements for pedestrians at 21 places as part of efforts to beautify the city before the World Classical Tamil Conference in June this year.

Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik launched the works.

Footpaths

The Mayor said many areas in the city did not have good footpaths and pedestrians faced the risk of getting hit by vehicles.

He cited the case of Dr. Nanjappa Road that had heavy traffic.

Apart from town bus services, buses to Salem, Tiruchi and Madurai took this stretch from Avanashi Road to reach the Central Bus Stand.

This would be among five to six main roads that would be provided with good pavements.

The Mayor said as many green spaces as possible would be created before the conference. South Zone Chairman P. Pynthamil Pari provided an image of a pavement and roadside park that would come up in his zone.

As many as 15 important locations, including junctions, would have parks.

The parks and pavements would be among a slew of measures that the Corporation was embarking upon to showcase Coimbatore as a clean and green city during the conference.

Slum-free city

The image-building exercise also included a project to create a slum-free city.

Recently, the State Government allocated Rs.26 crore to widen and relay 71 roads in the city before the conference.

Official sources said most of the works being taken up now were aimed at improving the infrastructure facilities in the city, mainly the roads, so that traffic bottlenecks did not crop up during the conference.