Shimla cleaner in 4 yrs: Mayor

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 29

Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar yesterday said they had made the capital cleaner.

Citing their achievements of four years in office, Chauhan said they had put in place a fairer distribution of quality water supply system, provided better roads and streetlights in all 25 wards. “We improved civic amenities by mobilising our internal sources worth Rs 100 crore”, added the Mayor.

In the first year, they managed the water crisis, disallowed privatisation and checked the water tanker mafia, they claimed. Now, the focus was to provide 24x7 water supply once the proposed Kol dam and water rejuvenation schemes started, he added.

He said they had tarred about 80 per cent of the roads out of the total road length of about 100 km while the rest of the roads would be tarred after the rains.

To solve the traffic mess, they had signed an agreement with Usha-Breco to start the ropeway service in 30 months, they said. But the state government did not give them the permission to run the battery-operated vehicles here and matter now is before the High Court.

They further said they had covered 85 per cent city under the door-to-door solid waste collection SEHB service, while efforts were to cover the rest.

The waste-to-energy plant was expected to function in four months, they said. “We will get 2 mw of electricity and the wastage left behind will go to the landfill ”, they added.

On the stinking public toilets in the city, Mayor said the toilets were maintained by Sulabh International. Out of 122 public toilets, about 40 were maintained properly, rest were being handed over to the new player for which tender had been invited, he added.