200-acre Olympic Academy to come up in Panjapur

TIRUCHI

In the wake of Chief Minister M.K Stalin’s announcement of establishment of an Olympic Academy in Tiruchi, the Corporation council on Friday adopted a resolution to set up the facility on a 200- acre site at Panjapur on the outskirts of the city.

The facility was announced to create an opportunity for sportspersons to undergo proper training and to perform competitively in international sports events. Mayor M. Anbazhagan said that a suitable site would be identified, and the project estimation will be drafted soon.

Chairing the monthly meeting, Mr. Anbazhagan, along with Corporation Commissioner R. Vaithinathan and Deputy Mayor G. Dhivya, addressed grievances of councillors pertaining to bad roads, shortcomings in maintenance of street lights, inadequacy of conservancy workers and street dog menace.

The city has about 1,490 km of road of which 848 km was utilised for carrying out underground drainage project. Work on around 600 km had been completed so far, Mr. Anbazhagan said, assuring that the remaining work on 248 km will be completed before April.

“To strengthen the stormwater drains network and to set up new ones to avoid flooding, work on a 400-km drain will be carried out. The first phase will begin in January in which around 100 km will be covered,” said Mr. Anbazhagan.

The Mayor informed that a sum of ₹22 crore had been allocated by the Central government to expedite UGD work, and a proposal to seek ₹100 crore from the Union Ministry for road repair works, stormwater drainage renovation and UGD was under progress.

The Corporation tabled the tax hike for the extended areas covering Tiruverumbur and Kattur (wards 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43) which were paying property tax as per the town and village panchayat tax slabs, which is much lower than the Corporation property tax slabs followed in other wards. However, councillors complained of being denied basic amenities, to which Mayor said that the areas will be developed soon.