After installing a solar panel topped structure as smart street bench at its main office, the Coimbatore Corporation has decided to go in for 30 more such benches.
Sources familiar with the development said that the Corporation would install the benches in the wards that come under the area based development component of the smart cities project. The estimated cost of each of the benches was around ₹4 lakh.
The Corporation could go in for a public private partnership model of development - meaning, the companies installing the smart benches could provide advertisement space or choose other advertisement mechanisms to recover the installation cost.
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The Corporation was also giving the companies/contractors the freedom to modify the design of the benches. They need not be a replication of the one in the Corporation main office.
The Corporation had meanwhile called online for request for proposal for 10 such benches. The Corporation had said that the idea of a smart bench was to create a unique design that provided solar energy to power cell phones, Wi-Fi, LED lighting, and sensor data gathering gadgets.
The objective was to make streets and public properties smarter and greener with the proposed smart bench.
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Sources in the Corporation, however, said that the civic body must first explain the purpose of and the benefit for the public from the smart bench in the main office. It should provide details like how many people had utilised the facility, charged their phone and was there a written feedback. They added that the Corporation should not rush into establishing more benches.