Almost a year after it announced ‘Mission 365’ to complete in a year the ₹168-crore integrated bus stand project in Vellalore, the Coimbatore Corporation, it appears, has made little progress.
The reasons for the slow progress were the civic body’s financial constraints and the title deed of the land where the bus stand was coming up showing Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board as the owner, said sources familiar with the developments, adding that the two issues were linked.
At the time of finalising the project, the Corporation had said that the State Government would finance 50% of the project cost and it would meet the rest by raising a loan with HUDCO.
As it began construction and made some progress, the Corporation approached the Government for funds to be told that the civic body spend its share first and that the Government would chip in after sometime.
So, when the civic body approached HUDCO for loan, it discovered that it was seeking loan for a project on a land whose records showed that the TWAD Board was the owner, the sources said.
And, the TWAD Board was the owner of the land because after it executed more than 30 years ago the underground drainage scheme for the then Corporation covering Gandhipuram, R.S. Puram and a few other areas in core city, it did not go ahead and have the revenue records changed to show that the Corporation was the owner.
The TWAD Board had worked on the land that measured 650 acre spread over two villages – Kurichi and Vellalore. While it managed to change the name in the part of the land that fell in Vellalore village it could not get in changed in the Kurichi part of the land and that was what was now causing the delay for the Corporation to tap HUDCO for funds, the sources explained
Senior officials said the Corporation had begun steps to have the revenue records changed so that the records reflected its ownership and it could avail of the loan.
