Soon, solar cookers to prepare midday meal in corporation schools

COIMBATORE: In an effort to promote use of renewable energy sources, the city corporation has decided to replace LPG with solar cookers to prepare the midday meal for school students. The solar cookers will be introduced at 16 higher secondary corporation schools, allocating Rs10lakh for the project.

"We plan to introduce these cookers in select schools and will later decide whether to extend it to other centres, based on whether the change is cost-effective," said H Vasantha, Chief Education Officer, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation. The introduction of solar powered cookers was one of the 13 resolutions passed at the emergency council meeting of the city municipal corporation convened here today.

The city corporation has also decided to hand over the identified road stretches to the state highways department as part of the much delayed construction of railway over-bridges. This decision was taken to avoid bearing 50 percent of the over-bridge construction costs. The roads relinquished by the corporation include Thaneer Pandhal Road (1.14km), Trichy Road from Neelikonampalayam to Neeliyammankoil (1.6km), Vilankuri9chi S Bend to Avinashi Road (1.7 km), Rathinapuri Sanganoor road from Sanganoor canal to Sanganoor main road (1.05km), Gandhiji Road, from Sanganoor canal to Kannappan Nagar (895m), Singanallur Vellalur route from Tiruchy Road to Noyyal Road (1.8km), Irugur Road (1.9km) and a portion of Ramachandra Street under corporation limits. The city corporation has also decided to hand over portions of VOC Park Road (300 m), Chinnasamy Naidu Street (300 m) and 300 m of 100 feet road to GP signal till Gandhipuram third street to the highways department in connection with the construction of the over-bridge.

"The handover of these roads to the highways department might have an adverse effect on residents in the long run as the corporation will not be able to carry out maintenance on these roads," said SM Samy, councillor ward no 61.

The city corporation has also decided to explore the possibility of recycling construction debris dumped in its limits to be used for construction purposes. Corporation officials claim similar methods have been adopted in cities like Delhi and Pune. The Delhi municipal corporation already has a proposal to recycle construction debris so that it could be used in the construction of footpaths and road dividers. A similar idea was recently mooted here during a meeting of City Technical Advisory Group members. The corporation has decided to seek Expression of Interest from private parties in implementing the project and explore further possibilities.