Choked drain troubles medical college, school

Corporation has decided to extend the drain, says Commissioner

The choked sewage in front of the Coimbatore Medical College campus, along Avinashi Road. Photo:M.Periasamy.

Letter, another letter and then a reminder and a few more – the instances of communication from the Coimbatore Medical College to the Coimbatore Corporation continued. It has now come to a stop, though, thanks to Mayor S.M. Velusamy’s and Corporation Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy’s initiative.

To complaint about the choked sewage in front of its campus, along the Avinashi Road, the Coimbatore Medical College management first wrote to the Coimbatore Corporation in November 2010 stating that the storm water from the nearby TIDEL Park entered its campus and that the college management found it difficult to flush out the water.

Mosquito breeding

The management told the Corporation that the stagnant sewage encouraged mosquito breeding and threatened the health of students, over 1,000 of who stayed at the hostel, which was in the vicinity.

The college management followed the letter with another letter in March 2011 and a reminder in August 2011. In this letter, the College management said that with the increase in the Avinashi Road level there was no way the water from the campus could flow out.

This also affected the nearby Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation and the PSGG Kanya Gurukulam Girls’ Higher Secondary School.

It also told the Corporation that the drain remained choked and there was no way it could move forward.

S.S. Padmasani, Head Mistress of the school, said that the drain carrying storm water and sewage from the TIDEL Park and the medical college was blocked near the school. This led to stagnation of waste water at the junction of the School’s pathway and the Avinashi Road.

The nearby matriculation school too was affected, she said.

Funds

In response to the institutions’ grievance, the Corporation has decided to extend the drain, says Mr. Ponnusamy. The civic body, as part of the Storm Water Drain project, will extend the drain eastward and let out the water into the natural drain there.

The Corporation will take up the work at the earliest, prior to the North East Monsoon, with funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme.