City corporators want PNG for all, riverfront like Guj

Back from their tour to study the development in Gujarat, corporators have drawn up a wishlist for the city.

Back from their tour to study the development in Gujarat, corporators have drawn up a wishlist for the city.

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It includes piped natural gas for all areas, a miniature kids’ city on the lines of the one in Ahmedabad, development of a riverfront in the city on the lines of Sabarmati, a tethered hot air balloon over the city and calling civic employees ‘karmayogi.’

A group of 14 corporators, all members of the civic improvements committee, had been to Gujarat recently. Corporators now want to replicate the lessons learnt from the neighbouring state.

“The Vadodara Municipal Corporation has been, for years, supplying piped natural gas to the city’s inhabitants. In our city, gas-supplying utilities have been digging up our roads. Hence, we must tie up with the Mahanagar Gas Ltd and supply piped gas to each house,” said Dr Ram Barot.

Hindustan Times had reported about the controversial tour plans, which included visits to tourist spots such as the Somnath and Dwarka shrines as part of the tour meant to ‘study’ the civic development work in the state.

The visit, a brainchild of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator and chairman of the committee, Barot, was seen as a political exercise because it involved a meeting with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The committee members have also proposed the construction of ring road in the city on the lines of a network of flyovers and elevated roads in Ahmedabad and another one planned in Surat.

As tourist attractions, the committee has proposed building of a park exclusively for children, on the lines of Kids City, a park built by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to help children get real-world experiences.

A senior Sena corporator, who did not wish to be named, said,

“The civic body in Ahmedabad is known as Seva Sadan, while a civic employee is called a karmayogi and not a karmachari. These are confidence-building measures that help in improving people’s perception of the civic body.”