C'batore faces funds crunch to maintain its roads

The Coimbatore City Corporation has exhausted funds earmarked for repairing roads that were dug up to lay UGD pipelines. Work on more than 100 km of roads is pending in the city. So the mess on city roads due to the underground drainage (UGD) work is unlikely to be cleared in the near future.

Officials in the Corporation on January 8 said they don't have funds to carry out maintenance work. The Corporation has applied for a special loan of Rs 47 crore from the State government as part of the Integrated Urban Development Programme to complete the maintenance work.

Despite the Coimbatore Corporation was recently adjudged the best municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu for achieving 89 per cent tax collections during 2011-12, the civic body is 'cash-strapped' when it comes to completing civic works and is depending on special financial grants and loans from the State government to carry out even road maintenance.