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The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore (ICCIC) has sought the help of the Union Minister of Urban Development in improving the transport infrastructure in Coimbatore in view of the key role it plays in the economy of the region.
It also wants that the international flights to and from Coimbatore should be increased by allowing more foreign airlines to operate their services to the city.
In a memorandum submitted to the Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, M Venkaiah Naidu, during his visit to the city on Sunday, the ICCIC President, D Nandakumar, pointed out that three busy National Highways passed through the city.
The exponential growth in the number of vehicles registered every year in the district and the fact that the city was centrally located among growing towns like Tirupur, Palakkad, Pollachi and Mettupalayam had put severe strain on the available road infrastructure.
He suggested that a feasibility survey for a Mass Road Transport System in Coimbatore may be taken up by the Urban Development Ministry as such a project would help ease the traffic flow in the city. He pointed out that the district had about 1.5 million vehicles as on 2013 and over 1 lakh vehicles were registered every year.
The ICCIC President, referring to the pivotal role played by Coimbatore region in the economic development of the country, said it had been ranked among the top 20 centres of economic development and its forex earning was around Rs 25,000 crore. However, the airport expansion project had not taken off.
Nandakumar pointed out that despite its economic importance, Coimbatore was not included among the cities to which airlines in Asia could operate their services without Special Bilateral Approval. This was despite the fact that the airport has been declared an international airport. It now has international flights only to two cities-Sharjah and Singapore.
He urged the Union Minister to take up the case of Coimbatore with the Union Civil Aviation minister so that Coimbatore benefited under the Bilateral Traffic Rights and more international flights are operated to the city and the airport expansion project was executed.
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