Ukkadam Big Tank (Periyakulam) and Valankulam might soon be free of weeds if the Coimbatore Corporation goes ahead and implements its plan to de-weed the tanks.
Around a year ago, following instructions from Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the civic body removed weeds from the tanks for a little more than Rs. 13 lakh.
This was after the Public Works Department fixed a rate for the exercise. The Corporation removed the weeds, used its vehicles to transport the weeds and destroyed the same.
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This time, though, the Corporation has planned to talk to the contractor who is doing a similar work for the Kerala Government.
To study the work, Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu, City Engineer in-charge K. Sugumar and PWD Assistant Executive Engineer Ilango were in Alappuzha a couple of days ago to study how the Kerala Government went about removing the weeds and the cost involved.
They said that the Government through its fisheries and tourism departments was engaged in removing weeds through a contractor, who used imported machines.
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It was an improvised boat with a cutter on one side and a platform like structure on the other to collect the cut weeds.
The boat had to either dump the cut weed by itself or pass it on to other boats for them to do the transportation job.
The boat cleared about two acres weed in a day.
They said that they had asked for a detailed working from the contractor.
The officials further said that the Corporation should go in for periodical de-weeding of the tanks and it should not be a one-off affair because the weeds would grow soon after the de-weeding exercise.
As for the cut weeds, the Corporation could go in for a bio-methanisation plant.
They said that unlike Kerala, the Corporation need not carry out the de-weeding operation round-the-year. It could instead choose to de-weed the tanks when the tanks were full of water. This would help the civic body reduce expenditure.
The officials said that the Corporation proposed to spend Rs. 20 lakh for the cleaning exercise.