COIMBATORE: Retired IAS officer PWC Davidar, who heads the inquiry commission constituted by the State government to review Smart City Projects, has expressed disappointment at the slow pace of works undertaken in the city and pulled up Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) officials.
After finishing his inquiry in Tiruppur, Davidar began his probe in Coimbatore on Thursday accompanied by CCMC Commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara and other smart city project officials. Davidar inspected works at several places including the model road at Race Course, the solar power plant at Ukkadam, beautification works at Periyakulam, etc. Sources said Davidar was disappointed that several projects were incomplete and conducted inquiries with engineering department officials.
On Friday, he inspected the RS Model road works, works that are being carried out at Kurichi tank, Krishnampathy lake, Selvampathy Lake, Muthannan Lake and the bio-mining works in the Vellalore dump yard. CCMC officials remained tight-lipped about what happened during the inspection.
Sources said “The officer grilled CCMC officials over the delay in finishing the projects and questioned them whether the guidelines were followed in awarding the tender as accusations were raised regarding favouritism shown in giving tenders to contractors. Also, it has been found that several irregularities have been found in the Kurichi and Krishnampathi lake works. The quality of materials used was comprised.” He will submit a report to the government soon.
The CCMC has been lacking a City Engineer and it has been affecting a majority of the works, officials said.