Foundation Laid For Sewage Treatment Plants
Work on the much-awaited Rs.377-crore underground drainage scheme seemed to be on track for take off with Mayor R. Venkatachalam laying the foundation for a sewage treatment plant at Nanjundapuram in the city on Sunday. Though done only at one location, the Mayor said the foundation laying marked the launch of the project for two plants on different sites. The one at Nanjudapuram, with a capacity to treat 40 million litres of sewage a day, would be established at Rs.35 crore.
A Rs.54-crore plant at Ukkadam would treat 70 million litres a day. The Mayor said works to set up the plants would begin soon. “We want the works to be over as soon as possible, as the scheme is a much-awaited one,” he said. The drainage scheme was mooted in 1998. It has almost reached the stage of implementation only now. The foundation for the treatment plants was laid even as Opposition parties – All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India – demanded that the Coimbatore Corporation invite fresh tenders. The parties had alleged irregularities, including the violation of Tender Transparency Act, in the awarding of contracts to firms to establish the plants.
