COIMBATORE: Coimbatore city will soon get two more Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres. The foundation stones for a new facility at Vellalore were laid on Saturday by the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) mayor and commissioner a day after an announcement in this regard in the civic budget for the upcoming financial year 2024-25.
With stray dog menace in the city increasing at an alarming rate, the civic body has planned to build two more ABC centres in the city in addition to the three existing ones already functioning in the city. Once established, each of the five zones in the city will have one ABC centre, said sources.
In Vellalore the facility will come up near the Micro-Compost Centre. CCMC Mayor Kalpana Anandakumar along with commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran and other officials and councillors laid its foundation stones on Saturday. It is to be built at a cost of Rs 65 lakh. Of late there has been a drastic spike in stray dog population and bites in the city.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran said, “The facility will be built and brought to operation within six months. It will have a capacity to sterilise around 750 to 1,000 dogs per month. Once established, the centre will be handed over to an NGO, approved by the Animal Welfare Board of India for sterilisation, vaccination and ABC programmes.”
Sources said that the facility will be spread across 3,965 square feet and will have seven kennels for stray dogs and one room each for the operation theatre, veterinarian, labourers and a kitchen.