‘Technical snag’ delays model road projects

Coimbatore: At least 10 months have lapsed since the city corporation completed the design and cost estimation for two of its model road projects and submitted its proposal to the state government. However, the civic body is yet to get technical clearance from authorities.
In July 2018, the city corporation had submitted its proposal to turn Race Course and TV Samy Road into model roads to a high-power committee, along with the proposals to implement the first phase of lake restoration and rejuvenation project at Periyakulam tank, Selvachintamani tank and Valankulam tank.

While the proposals were rejected thrice in a row, the city corporation managed to obtain administrative sanction on its fourth attempt for both the road and lake projects in November. But it again faced hurdles while scrutinizing the projects for technical approval.

Meanwhile, the civic body managed to obtain technical sanction for its lake rejuvenation projects and commenced the work at two of the three locations. However, the model road project is yet to see the light of the day with the city corporation struggling to obtain the technical approval.

Pointing out that the format used by the state government and private sector for preparing cost estimate was entirely different, a corporation official involved in the project attributed the delay in getting the technical approval to the time taken by consultants to prepare the estimate as per the requirement of officials at the commissionerate of municipal administration.

Explaining that the value of all the materials were quoted as per the market value, the officials said the consultants had to be change the values as per the government fixed scheduled of rates, which are several times cheaper than the market value. “They are almost ready with the estimate.”

Once the consultants submit the revised estimate, the scrutinizing process could be completed soon, the official said and added that they were confident of obtaining the approval in a month.

Meanwhile, the second and the third phase of the lake restoration and rejuvenation project, under which the civic body plans to give a face-lift to the remaining five lakes in the city, has obtained administrative clearance. “Now, they are being considered for technical sanction,” the official said and added that they would start pushing one project after the other after the general elections.