New head lifts CMC from mire

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Governing Colombo, the country's prime city, for the satisfaction of its 700,000 odd population and its daily visitors, is somewhat challenging task even for an effective and efficient administration, whatever the party politics involved in it.

There were complaints against city administration even when Colombo was picked as one of Asia's best cities in late 1990's, while the city administrators were doing their best to make it a cleaner and greener city.

Therefore, it is imperative, for anyone to understand what would be the plight of the capital city which has a population of over 700,000 and a workforce of over 7500 if its administration came to a halt due to weak political leadership on the part of the municipal administration.

The city administration was suspended in October 2008, when it was found guilty of six out of nine charges levelled against it by the Commission appointed to investigate the public allegations.

Consequently the CMC administration was suspended October 2008 meanwhile the Government appointed two special commissioners, the Local Government Commissioner Sumanapala from October 2008 to March 2009 and then the Colombo Municipal Commissioner Mrs. Badhrani Jayawardena to continue the city administration.

Lowest ebb

Ayurveda junction getting a facelift.

Kerbs being done up

It was on July 15, 2009 President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed former Major Omar Kamil, a man who has steered the city into new heights as its Chief City Administrator.

He was expected to make important changes in the administration of the city, which was at its lowest ebb at that point of time.

"I had to go through a hardway to start the city administration afresh which was almost decadent by the time I took over it," said Omar Kamil the Chief City Administrator in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

"To make things move we had to decide on a crash program as many of the services rendered by the CMC had stalled due to weak leadership.

"Under the 100 Day program we are expediting all CME activities, Kamil said.

"It is my firm belief that we should cater more efficiently to the needs of ratepayers and make the city a clean one while ensuring a vibrant administration", he said.

Controlling dengue fever, streamlining the garbage collection and disposal, improving CMC services clearing the drainage system, improving CMC Public Health Department and streamlining the traffic control system were the major projects included in the 100 Day Programme started on August 01, 2009.

"We could bring positive results through our Dengue awareness program focusing mainly on the areas centred on educational institutions and schools as dengue victims were reported mainly from the areas closer to schools", he said.

The CMC started clearing water gullies closer to vulnerable areas such as Public Library, University, Bloemendhal Road, Armour Street, Town Hall, Havelock Town area while educating schoolchildren and teachers on the importance of clearing school premises without allowing water to get stagnated.

Ratepayers

"This program has greatly helped to keep the number of Dengue cases within Colombo city low", Kamil stressed.

The relaunch of the Public Day and the issuing of a leaflet on directory of services among the registered ratepayers, shopowners and among the low income level people of the city to make the services of the CMC more accessible to the public was also included in the 100 Day program.

"This program helped many ratepayers as the services of the CMC were activated to address their outstanding problems", he added.

Apart from this program, the CMC also took the initiative to improve the services rendered by its Public Health Department.

A new Ayurvedic health clinic, especially to treat disabled soldiers, was opened at Glenie Street, Slave Island while laying the foundation stone to erect another Dispensary at Cotta road for the benefit of the ratepayers.

"Services of the Public Health Department are made available to the city dwellers through 39 Dispensaries. We are giving free medical care for more than 3,500 patients a day" we are the only local authority in Sri Lanka providing free medical care to the public and serving nearly 800,000 patients on an annual basis", he said.

The biggest project under the 100 Day Programme was commissioned on November 18, with the participation of Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

The Council took the initiative to instal a new traffic control system for the Parliament straight drive from Ayurvedic junction in Rajagiriya to Horton Place roundabout, enabling vehicular traffic on this route a 'go green' drive during rush hours.

The synchronised signal light system and newly designed Ayurvedic junction roundabout largely eased the rush hour traffic.

According to Kamil, the new synchronised traffic system will enable the vehicles driven at an average speed to pass all the intersections between Ayurvedic roundabout and Horton Place without any interruption from traffic lights.

"With the introduction of the new synchronised traffic light system more than 75,000 vehicles passing this section of road when entering and exiting from the Colombo city on a daily basis can save much of their time and fuel wasted due to traffic congestion," Kamil added.

"The CMC introduced this new traffic control system for the first time in Sri Lanka", he added.

Congestion

The Ayurvedic roundabout connecting Kotte Road and Cotta Road has also been redesigned removing all the bottlenecks and elevating the Cotta Road to the level of Kotte Road and carpeting the road from their Ayurvedic Junction to Horton Place.

During peak hour traffic it takes more than 45 minutes to pass this section of road upto Ayurvedic junction on Cotta road. "Therefore, we decided to improve the intersections of this road to ease traffic congestion", Kamil said.

The intersections at Horton Place, Wijerama Mawatha, Kynsey Road, D.S. Senanayake Junction, Model Farm Road Junction and Castle Street roundabout will be rehabilitated and redesigned replacing the traffic lights with new ones.

Civil works related to the redesigning and the installation of the new traffic control system together with the resurfacing of the roads were carried out by Council under chief engineer Mrs. Vishaka Dias, and all the directors in-charge of roads, traffic, drainage, training and development.

Apart from this, the CMC with the support of the corporate sector and the private sector has also taken initiative to beautify the city by redoing the city roundabouts and other public places.

"We are receiving a tremendous support from the corporate and the private sector sponsoring those roundabouts. They have agreed to beatify them to make the city more beautiful and attractive", we were able to do so much of work during this very short period with the support of the managing staff and the workers of all the divisions in the CMC," he said.

"This is an effort on the part of a very committed team who were able to perform and deliver its service to its ratepayers", at their best he added.

Finally Kamil thanked President Mahinda Rajapaksa who guided them to achieve positive results and the Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council, Prasanna Ranatunga for encouraging them to launch a successful program for the benefit of ratepayers.