Coimbatore Corporation will resume work to clean and beautify Kurichi Tank only after it completes the estimates revaluation work.
According to the sources, after the one-man inquiry committee with retired IAS officer P.W.C. Davidar recently visited the city to take stock of the progress in implementing various Smart Cities Mission projects, the Corporation had begun the task of ascertaining if the estimates prepared for the ₹ 50 crore Kurichi Tank project were as per norms.
Engineers engaged in verifying the estimates were expected to complete the work in the next couple of weeks. The Corporation would instruct the contractor to resume the work only after that.
The contractor would require six months or more to complete the Kurichi Tank project, the sources said. The Corporation planned to throw open the Kurichi Tank for public before March 2023.
It had made slow progress in Kurchi Tank development work in the recent few months because of issues with the contractor, who had asked for release of money for works completed to continue the project.
As of May 2022, the Corporation had completed 56 % work in the tank, which was the ninth and the last tank that it had taken up under Smart Cities Mission in November 2019. The civic body had planned to develop a walkers’ path, bicycling track and give a facelift to the eastern side of the tank, which was spread over 334.92 acres.
The Corporation also planned to build a micro sewage treatment plant to treat the sewage flowing into the tank.
But the delay in progress had resulted in girders lying around and the area under development remaining open to public. The delay had also resulted in weeds growing on the water spread area.
The sources said the Corporation would remove the weeds, clean the place and ensure that the site was secure before starting the work.
In the last Council meeting in April, councillors had flagged the slow progress in the Kurichi Tank work and demanded that the Corporation complete the work at the earliest.
