Land worth Rs 2000 cr to become garbage-free under Smart Cities Mission in Coimbatore

Under the waste-to-wealth concept by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Coimbatore Smart City Mission has taken the initiative of cleaning the waste accumulated over decades.

Under the waste to-wealth concept by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Coimbatore Smart City Mission here has taken the initiative of cleaning the waste accumulated over decades. According to Smart City Mission officials, the government land worth about Rs 2,000 crore will also become garbage-free.

As per official data, more than 15.5 lakh cubic meters of garbage were accumulated in Coimbatore city for many years. Due to this garbage, 650 acres of land were also buried in the pile of garbage. General Manager of Smart City Mission Limited, Baskar Srinivasan informed, "In the first phase, we have taken the initiative to clean about nine and a half lakh cubic meters of garbage in two and a half years. With this, 140 acres of land can be freed."

"So far, garbage has been removed from 50 acres of land and the rest of the land will also be garbage free soon. This land worth about two thousand crore rupees will be used for IT Park, industries and other developmental projects", he added. According to the officials, in Coimbatore, 1100 tonnes of garbage is produced daily. In order to prevent the accumulation of garbage in future, the garbage collection vehicles are also being monitored through a GPS system.

"Total 54 projects has been started in Coimbatore under National Smart Cities Mission. 43 have been completed and rest are near completion", the officials said. The Coimbatore city municipal corporation has saved around Rs 16 crore in electricity bills each year since 2018, by using energy-efficient street lights and harnessing solar power under the National Smart Cities Mission, an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India.

Commissioner M Prathap disclosed this information on Friday to a delegation of officials from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), led by the additional director general, PIB (M&C) Rajeev Jain, that inspected projects developed under the Smart City Projects. Briefing the officials, Prathap told them that Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) intends to ensure that all residents of Coimbatore city, including the urban poor,  have access to affordable and reliable power supply. Under the differential electricity tariff, urban poor enjoy free electricity up to 100 kWh after which slab-based charges apply, he said.

"In the last few years, CCMC has been saving a huge sum of money as well as energy after switching over to energy-efficient systems. We have been saving around Rs 10 crore per year in electricity charges after installing LED streetlights in 2018. Around one lakh conventional lights were replaced with smart LED street lights since 2018. Apart from that, the civic body has also been saving energy and money by installing solar power plants," Prathap said. Officials in the Smart City Projects mission said, "A total of 23,717 MW of electricity is saved every year by using solar power plants and LED lights. With this, the CCMC saves around Rs 16.05 crore per year in electricity charges.  Currently, solar power plants are functioning in Ukkadam Sewage Farm Premises (1 MW), Ukkadam old dump yard premises (3.6 MW), Kavundampalayam old dump yard premises (1 MW) and rooftop solar panels on municipal corporation buildings (0.625 MW)."

Further, Prathap said that installation work of a 2-MW solar power plant in Kavundampalayam and a 140 KWP floating solar power plant in Ukkadam Periyakulam is underway. (ANI)

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