Corporation to seek funds for improving traffic infrastructure

The Tiruchi Corporation has planned to approach the Directorate of Town and Country Planning seeking funds for improving traffic infrastructure in some parts of the city and amenities for devotees visiting the heritage town of Srirangam.

The civic body plans to avail of the assistance from the Town and Country Planning Development Fund under the heads of heritage town development programmes, traffic improvement, and parks development.

According to sources, up to Rs.1 crore could be availed for heritage town development programmes and up to Rs.50 lakh for traffic improvement schemes from the directorate. The corporation has already drawn up proposals for developing about 20 parks availing of assistance from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning.

According to proposals drawn up by the corporation, the civic body plans to seek about Rs.3.83 crore of assistance for traffic development programmes in the four zones of Srirangam, K.Abishekapuram, Golden Rock and Ariyamangalam in the city from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning.

About Rs.10 lakh each is planned to be allotted for putting signboards in stainless steel to indicate names of streets and roads in Srirangam and Ariyamangalam zones. The corporation also seeks to avail of assistance for its proposal on building a foot over-bridge at the central bus stand in Golden Rock zone at a cost of Rs.52 lakh.

The corporation has planned to build pedestrian pavements with stainless steel grills along Bharathidasan Road and Thillai Nagar Main Road at estimates of Rs.1.65 crore and Rs.1.46 crore respectively.

Under the heritage town development programme, it has been planned to build a canopied pedestrian corridor from Raja Gopuram to Renga Renga Gopuram of Srirangam Ranganathaswamy Temple in ward 1 of Srirangam zone at an estimate of Rs.64 lakh.

Roadside parks with parapet walls are also planned to be built along the East, West and North Uttira veedhis in Srirangam at a cost of Rs.40 lakh. If the estimates of the projects exceeded the amount of grant sanctioned, the civic body would meet the remaining expenditure from its general fund, sources said. Once cleared by the corporation council, the proposals would be forwarded to the Commissioner of Municipal Administration and the Commissioner, Town and Country Planning, for approval.