The Coimbatore Corporation Council's Urgent Meeting on Tuesday threw up a mixed opinion on the new lights on Avanashi Road, with some councillors saying that the light was inadequate and a few others contesting this view.
Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said the lights conformed to the specifications relating to the use on six-lane roads.
Therefore, there was no question of their being inadequate in terms of providing the required amount of light.
Contending that the lighting was inadequate and, therefore, risky on a road with heavy volume of traffic, Leader of the Opposition and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member V.N. Udayakumar said the earlier lamps had provided more light.
Mr. Mishra said the lighting was better than the earlier arrangement and this could be seen if one drove without the headlights on at midnight.
New lamps
Superintending Engineer for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission schemes of the Corporation K. Bhoopathy said the new lamps focussed only on the road and did not diffuse light to the buildings on either side like the earlier ones.
This was probably why people thought that the road was not lit well.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) member and North Zone Chairman C. Padmanabhan supported the view of the officials by saying there was adequate light on Avanashi Road.
With Mr. Udayakumar insisting that the Corporation take a fresh look at the lighting issue, Mr. Mishra said the civic body would once again examine the required standards.
The Council passed a proposal for installing such lights from the Avanashi Road-Airport Road Junction to R.G. Pudur as part of the street lighting works taken up by the civic body in view of the World Classical Tamil Conference that is scheduled to be held here from June 23 to 27.
Members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged a walkout alleging that the desired improvement in drinking water supply had not happened in North and East zones of the Corporation.
At the start of the meeting, leader of the party in the Council P. Rajkumar said the Commissioner had taken some efforts to improve supply.
But, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board was not making the full supply of Pilloor water (65 million litres a day) to the city in order to avoid a main line burst till the Tamil conference.
When Mayor R. Venkatachalam said this could be discussed after the agenda for the Urgent Meeting had been dealt with, the councillors walked out of the Council, with Mr. Rajkumar saying this was a boycott and not just a walk out.
