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Germany ready to fund projects in Coimbatore

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The Hindu       21.07.2016 

Germany ready to fund projects in Coimbatore

Germany is ready to fund development projects in Coimbatore, said the country’s Ambassador Martin Ney on Wednesday.

Addressing reporters after meeting Mayor P. Rajkumar and Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan here, Mr. Ney said that said if the Corporation forwarded proposals for the projects it planned to start this October, Germany would be willing to consider extending financial support.

The Corporation could, therefore, approach the Central Government so that it was brought on table during the inter-government negotiations.

The Ambassador, who led a 10-member delegation, said that he had met Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. And he was in Coimbatore, one of the three Smart Cities that Germany was collaborating with. The other two were Bhubaneswar and Kochi.

Mr. Ney said that Germany and Tamil Nadu had strong links as in the past seven years his country had granted three loans worth Euro 265 mn to fund 30 urban development projects. Of those, a few had been implemented in Coimbatore as well.

Germany had also given Euro 76 million to the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation under green energy cooperation.

As for helping Coimbatore in the Smart Cities project, he said that Germany had expertise in smart and intelligent transport and waste water management. The German expertise went back to 1972 when the country was preparing for the Munich Olympics. It took the transport underground and cleaned its rivers, including Rhine. During his interaction with Mr. Karthikeyan, there was a mention of developing smart and intelligent transport in the city. German companies had also developed technical expertise in those areas.

Members of the Germany Embassy in New Delhi, funding agency KfW, Bosch, German Water Partnership, Siemens, TUV SUD South Asia and Fraunhofer Office, India, were also present.

 

Mettupalayam to get UGD

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The Hindu      08.07.2016  

Mettupalayam to get UGD

Mettupalayam Municipality a few days ago passed the resolution that will help the town get an underground sewerage system and stop flow of sewage into River Bhavani. According to municipal chairman D. Satheesh Kumar, the civic body will implement the scheme at over Rs. 80 crore in all the 33 wards.

The civic body had prepared the underground drainage (UGD) project keeping in mind the sewage to be generated in 2047 and the then population – 9.40 million litres a day and 8.36 lakh people respectively.

The implementation of the UGD project would not only help the Mettupalayam Municipality but also a number of local bodies that were dependent on River Bhavani as their water source.

At present, the town generated four to five million litres sewage a day at 110 litres per capita a day basis.

Mr. Kumar said that the civic body would take up the project with help from an international funding agency and the State Government. Its contribution would be around Rs. 9 crore. The Municipality would lay 75,642 km pipelines and built 3,169 manholes. It would also build seven lifting stations and provide connection to 12,000 households.

The collected water would reach the sewage treatment plant that the Municipality would build on the land housing the municipal compost yard. It would go in for the modified sequential batch reactor technology.

The chairman added that the civic body also decided on the one-time deposit and monthly charges. The deposit would vary from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 12,500 depending on the size of the establishment and water consumption and the monthly fee would vary from Rs. 100 to Rs. 160.

 

Corporation to go the solar way

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The Hindu        02.03.2015  

Corporation to go the solar way

It is taking steps to harness the energy in zonal offices too

A portion of the building of Vellore Corporation will soon be powered with solar energy.—Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy
A portion of the building of Vellore Corporation will soon be powered with solar energy.—Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

The Vellore Corporation is all set to go the solar way. It is taking steps to harness the energy for its office building and later expand it to the zonal offices and urban health posts.

It is currently working out ways to install solar panels on the rooftop of its building on Infantry Road. Officials said it has been proposed to generate 40 KVA (kilo volt ampere) of solar power. Technical and administrative nod has already been obtained.

Cost-cutting

“We are planning to tap solar energy to power the entire Corporation building,” an official said. The Corporation pays about Rs. 50,000 per month towards electricity charges and harnessing solar energy will help in cutting down this cost, they added.

The local body is now in the process of cancelling its previous tender for the work as the company had quoted a high cost for the project. It had issued the work order to an energy-based company.

However, the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), in a letter, had said that the equipment required to generate 40 KW of solar power costs Rs. 40 lakh, while the company that was awarded the tender had quoted over Rs. 94 lakh.

As this would incur double cost for the Corporation, it was decided to cancel the work order issued. An official said that a Chennai-based company recognised by TEDA is being roped in for the job. This way, the local body gets to spend lesser. It takes Rs. 7.83 lakh to install equipment to generate 10 KW solar power.

The Corporation council’s nod has also been obtained. Officials said the work is likely to begin in a month or two. They said the number of panels to be installed on the rooftop will be according to the requirements of the building. However, the entire space available could be utilised.

“First, we are planning to generate and utilise solar power for the main Corporation building that is ground plus two floors.

Next, it has been proposed to tap solar energy for the four zonal offices, followed by nine urban health posts,” an official.

 


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