Corpn to strengthen ties with German city Esslingen am Neckar

Coimbatore: Representatives from German city Esslingen am Neckar, led by mayor Jurgen Zieger, visited the city on Friday to explore areas of cooperation.
The German city had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the city corporation three years ago to strengthen ties between the two cities. Since then, representatives from both the cities have been visiting each other to keep track of developments in various fields. “The German team is here to take forward the ties,” a corporation official, who didn’t want to be named, said.

According to the source, the two cities are expected to work together on areas of student exchange programme, energy, potable water supply and waste water treatment.

The German team met corporation officials and discussed a wide range of topics, including drinking water treatment, waste water treatment, health related activities and sports. When they raised questions pertaining to dislocation of urban poor people, corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said they were the people who had encroached waterbodies and they were evicted only after providing them alternative accommodation through slum clearance board.

“We want to explore the possibility of having technical assistance to solve day-to-day challenges. We are expecting exchange of technology between the two cities,” the corporation official said.