In a bid to ease traffic congestion in the city, clean and rejuvenate the Sanganoor Canal, the Coimbatore Corporation has floated tender to build a road along the water body.
Sources in the civic body said the tender was for developing that stretch of the canal between the Mettupalayam Road and Avinashi Road, which would be the first phase.
The project cost for the first phase was around ₹40 crore, which the civic body had sought from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning under the Infrastructure and Amenities Fund.
The corporation would in the next few days open the tender, scrutinise the bids and award the contract to the lowest bidder to develop the road along the canal.
As a part of the project, the corporation would also look at removing encroachments along the canal banks and that included shifting people who had built their houses. It had a resettlement plan for such people.
The corporation had in the past few years proposed the canal development project, which the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had announced as a part of the special package for the Coimbatore Corporation.
Thereafter, the corporation prepared a detailed project report for developing the stretch of the canal from Mettupalayam Road to Trichy Road – 11.50 km – for ₹575 crore. It was to develop the road in phases.
The proposal also found a mention in the corporation budget for three successive years.
As a part of the proposal, the civic body had also proposed bicycling and walking tracks.