Corp Will Not Rush Into Any Decision
The proposal to restrict construction of high-rise and commercial buildings in Race Course is running into resistance in Coimbatore. The Coimbatore Corporation will not rush into any decision – either to ban or allow commercial buildings and multi-storeyed apartments – in Race Course, especially along the main road. There are indications of the issue taking a long time to settle if environmental interests are to win against the commercial. Declaring that there will not be any hasty decision, Mayor R. Venkatachalam says this is an issue that will require many rounds of discussions. Therefore, the all-party meeting the councillors had called for may not be held even before the next monthly meeting of the Corporation Council. The Mayor is aware of divergent views within the Council on his demand for a ban on high-rise apartments and commercial buildings. He has been arguing that Race Course on the whole needs to be preserved as a key lung space of the city. The cropping up of a few commercial establishments over the last three to four years is changing the profile of an essentially residential colony.
The original proposal involved the marking of a certain area in Race Course as one where no buildings for commercial purposes or multi-storeyed residential apartments will be allowed to come up. Later, the tabling of some resolutions pertaining to land use conversion in Race Course drew sharp criticism from some of the Opposition parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Suspecting the dilution of stand on the ban, the party had even alleged that the original proposal might have been aimed at intimidating some sections of builders.
The latest of the resolutions at the August 29 Council meeting is said to have pushed the ban proposal into a phase of uncertainty. The resolution pertains to an appeal by an applicant for changing the status of a site from residential to that of commercial in order to build a multi-storeyed commercial complex. The resolution triggered a debate in the Council, with the parties calling for an all-party meeting to get a clear picture of Race Course and what is to be done with it. The Corporation will go into this process facing stiff opposition to the ban proposal from sections that demand development in Race Course.
Their argument is that there are already quite a few commercial establishments along Race Course Road that serve the interests of the local people and those from other areas. Citing cases pressed for by these sections, the Mayor says that permission for a commercial structure has been sought on the grounds that it is only replacing another one that is on a particular site. So, another opinion that has emerged is that new commercial structures can allowed if these are replacing old ones.
But, the debate continues over changing residential sites to commercial ones. The Mayor points out that danger of one house on a large site being replaced with a number of flats in two or three blocks of an apartment. The number of people and the vehicles in that area increases. Besides, most apartments and office buildings do not have parking space for visitor’s vehicles. The resultant parking of vehicles along the main road will only hamper traffic flow. “We will have to arrive at decision after weighing all options,” says the Mayor.
