COIMBATORE: The public here are sceptic about the possibility of Coimbatore corporation’s scheme roads as well as Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) being implemented.
The two proposals have been in cold storage as the corporation was struggling to mobilise funds to the tune of several crores on its own.
Scheme roads and BRTS are important for a hundred per cent congestion free traffic in the city. At present, seven lakh vehicles are plying in Coimbatore besides hundreds of outside vehicles.
Except the three main roads - Avinashi, Tiruchy and Sathy - which have been developed in the city limit, all other roads laid decades ago have no significant improvements.
According to sources of corporation’s town planning wing, about 250 scheme road projects are pending for long.
The scheme roads are to be implemented by corporation with the assistance of Local Planning Authority. Even for executing these road projects, encroachments should be evicted and in many places structures have come up blocking part of the area proposed for scheme roads. Even the hundreds of link road proposals are also pending for a long time.
In the last 10 years, the technical committee meeting on scheme roads were conducted only thrice largely due to the impossibility of mobilising adequate funds through its own sources.
In reply to queries on road projects raised by a consumer organisation according to the Right to Information Act, Town Planning Officer Soundararajan said the corporation had sent a proposal of BRTS to the government for approval.
However, a corporation engineer said the civic body had prepared an estimate of Rs 750 crore for BRTS scheme under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) when P Muthurveeran was Commissioner more than a year ago. As per the JNNURM norms, while the Central government will provide 50 per cent grants, the state government will give 20 per cent interest free loans. The corporation should meet the balance (30 per cent) through borrowings or service charge and toll gate fee.
The government is yet to sanction the BRTS as the Corporation is struggling to prove its ability to mobilise 30 per cent of the total project cost (Rs 225 crore) through its own concrete sources. Already, the corporation is bearing heavy financial burden to implement three approved schemes under JNNURM.
