Spotlight on Coimbatore (India) – Interview with Hon’ble Mayor S M Velusamy

 

ICLEI South Asia has started a series of interviews with our member city Mayors and Commissioners, to get to know them and their cities better and find out how ICLEI South Asia has helped them achieve their sustainability goals. First in this series is Honorable Mayor S M Velusamy, Mayor of Coimbatore, India.

 

What would you describe as Coimbatore’s main achievements in the field of sustainability?

 

With the support and guidance from our Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the Coimbatore Corporation has initiated numerous sustainability projects in Coimbatore. The Corporation’s main achievements in the areas of energy saving and solar implementation initiatives have contributed to considerably reducing maintenance costs and to preserving the environmental ecology of the city. In tune with the expanding global policy, the Corporation is also aiming at making Coimbatore completely solar-energy based and at introducing a non motorised transport system that will further help in eliminate environmental pollution.

 

In addition, the Corporation is implementing schemes such as tree plantation, yearly distribution of free laptops and cycles to school students, herbal restaurants to improve people’s health, Amma restaurants that offer low-cost food and so on. To conserve water, rain water harvesting structures must be included in a building plan before getting the Corporation’s approval. Currently, out of 64,000 street lights, more than 37,000 are equipped with energy saving devices; another 22,000 LED lamps will replace the existing tube lights, further reducing our energy consumption.

  

How has ICLEI South Asia’s support helped you achieve these goals?

 

ICLEI South Asia’s cooperation has been crucial in ensuring the implementation of our sustainability projects. We could take advantage of technical capacity-building and the availability of best practices from other cities. ICLEI has supported the successful implementation of the project “SUNYA – Towards zero waste in South Asia” as well as our Solar City programme. As an ICLEI member, the city of Coimbatore is undoubtedly benefitting in the areas of solar implementation and energy efficiency, capacity building and all in all environmental sustainability.

 

 

ICLEI WORLD SECRETARIAT
Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 7
53113 Bonn
Germany
T: +49-228/97 62 99-00
F.+49-228/97 62 99-01 Email: iclei.org
EUROPE
European Secretariat
Leopoldring 3
79098 Freiburg, Germany
www.iclei-europe.org
Brussels Office
Av. de Tervuren 35
1040 Bruxelles
Belgium
Berlin Office
St. Oberholz ROS Team Room 4.02 Rosenthaler Str. 72a 10119 Berlin, Germany
AFRICA SECRETARIAT
Physical address:
3 Knowledge Park
Century City
Cape Town
8001
South Africa
Postal address:
PO Box 5319
Tygervalley
7536
South Africa
www.iclei.org/africa
NORTH AMERICA
Canada Office
401 Richmond St. W
Studio 204
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3A8, Canada
www.iclei.org/canada
USA Office
536 Wynkoop St.
Suite 901
Denver, Colorado
USA 80202
www.icleiusa.org
MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Mexico, Central American and Caribbean Secretariat
Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas 13 Building Miguel Abed, Floor 5 Office 506 and 507, Col. Centro, CP 06050 Del. Cuauhtemoc, Mexico City, Mexico
www.iclei.org.mx
Colombia Office
Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá Carrera 53 N° 40A - 31 Medellín, Antioquia – Colombia
ICLEI Argentina
Boulevard Gálvez, 1150 Planta Alta. Santa Fe, Argentina
SOUTH AMERICA
South America Secretariat Brazil Project Office
Rua Ibiraçu, 226, Vila Madalena
São Paulo / SP - Brazil
CEP 05451-040
www.iclei.org.mx
SOUTH ASIA
South Asia Secretariat
Ground Floor, NSIC-STP Complex NSIC Bhawan, Okhla Industrial Estate New Delhi – 110020, India
southasia.iclei.org
EAST ASIA
East Asia Secretariat
14/F, Seoul Global Center Building, 38 Jongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea (110-110)
eastasia.iclei.org
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Southeast Asia Secretariat
c/o The Manila Observatory Ateneo de Manila University Campus Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1101 Manila, Philippines
seas.iclei.org
ICLEI Indonesia Project Office
Rasuna Office Park III WO. 06-09 Komplek Rasuna Epicentrum Jl. Taman Rasuna Selatan, Kuningan DKI Jakarta, 12960, Indonesia
OCEANIA
Oceania Secretariat
Level 1, 200 Little Collins Street Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
icleioceania.org
Advocacy
Training
Consultancy
Research
Associate Partnership
Associate Partnership
Associate Partnership
Associate Partnership
Associate Partnership
ICLEI membership application
ICLEI membership application
ICLEI membership application
ICLEI membership application
ICLEI membership application
Want to be a model?
Want to be a model?
Want to be a model?
Want to be a model?
Want to be a model?
ICLEI membership online application form
ICLEI membership online application form
ICLEI membership online application form
ICLEI membership online application form
ICLEI membership online application form