COIMBATORE: Poor response from the people to the City Corporation’s demand for suggestions for the Smart City project has led it to engage vehicles and meet people to get their proposals.
The Coimbatore Corporation has received only 445 suggestions from its residents, though people of other cities in Tamil Nadu have made valuable contributions to the drafting of their Smart City projects. Tiruchy residents, for instance, have given 1,221 proposals on shaping their city.
Also, response through through the Coimbatore Corporation’s website is little; the general public, as well as NGOs, send more ideas through letters, Facebook and WhatsApp. Officials have requested those interested to visit the Corporation’s website and log into the ‘Smart City Coimbatore’ link and ‘mygove’ link and give their suggestions on shaping their city.
The Corporation has also allotted one vehicle each to the five zones. These are parked in crowded areas and the staff hand out forms to the public for their suggestions on the Smart City project. This was begun on Friday and will continue till Monday. Some observers say that Mayor P Rajkumar and Commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan have not been effective in reaching out to the people and creating awareness about the Smart City project to get their suggestions.
At a recent media conference, the Commissioner had said that if Coimbatore is not chosen in the first phase of the Smart City project, the Corporation would try to get the City included in the next phase. The Centre will select 100 cities across the country in phases to implement the project. Each of these cities will get Rs 500 crore to improve its infrastructure.
R Varadharajan of Ganapathy, a member of the Indian Chamber of Commerce said, “The civic body should consider establishing one fire service centre for every 10 wards and allot two fire engines for each centre. This would ensure speedy response in case of fires and reduce deaths and damages. The investment needed is low, though it would benefit lakhs of people in the City.”
He also suggested that fire engines should be parked wherever the Corporation has overhead water tanks, because these places have round-the-clock water supply and power supply, besides enough space for the vehicles.