Coimbatore Corporation mulls financial models for integrated bus stand

With the aim of completing the preparatory work for the proposed integrated town bus stand at the earliest, the Coimbatore Corporation officials have begun discussing how to go about implementing the scheme.

An official said that one of the important threads of discussion was how to make the proposed bus stand a financially viable project.

Options

This meant trying to determine whether the civic body in Coimbatore should manage the bus stand on its own, hand it over to a contactor under the public-private partnership mode, or even consider whether the facility should be completely privatised.

For, the Coimbatore Corporation was keen on making the project a financially successful one so that it utilised the revenue it earned to repay the loan it might have to avail of in order to construct the bus stand.

The official said that nothing had been finalised as the officers were only discussing the financial modalities.

Design

Likewise, the Corporation had also not finalised the proposed integrated bus stand’s design as it would have to factor in the adjustments that would have to be made because of the proposed flyover being planned in the busy Gandhipuram area of the city.

The Coimbatore Corporation, after preparing the blue print, would take it to the Commissioner for Municipal Administration and then the Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, for approval.

Only then would the civic body finalise the design for the bus stand, the official said.

The Corporation had proposed an integrated bus stand on 12.58 acres in Gandhipuram at a cost of Rs. 120 crore.

As part of the proposal, the Corporation had decided to build a mall, cinema, office space and parking lot.

It had planned to meet a part of the expenditure from its General Fund and then approach the State Government for the rest.

But, for the Corporation to get a clearance for the project, it would have to take over a portion of the Coimbatore Central Prison grounds, for which the consent of the Prisons Department was required.