Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Oct 16 (PTI) The Periyar Arivulagam and Science Centre, inaugurated by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay here on Friday, features a 356-seat auditorium, a library with facilities for persons with disabilities, a 90-seat planetarium and several other facilities.
The ground-plus-seven-storey building was built as a destination for education, scientific learning and research. The first floor houses a reception and science centre, and the second has a children’s library and a self-reading section.
The third floor has a library for competitive exam aspirants and the administrative office, while the fourth has Tamil book and periodicals sections.
The English book section and an entrepreneurship (incubation) centre are on the fifth and sixth floors respectively. The seventh floor has an open courtyard and an e-library.
The centre has modern scientific equipment, including a STEM laboratory and virtual and augmented reality tools, the government said in a release.
Its library holds about one lakh books on subjects including Tamil and English literature, linguistics, mathematics, science, engineering, medicine, law, sociology, management and technology.
The building has parking for 130 four-wheelers and 450 two-wheelers, besides escalators, elevators, a sewage treatment plant, toilets and drinking water facilities.
At the event, Vijay inaugurated 89 completed public infrastructure projects worth Rs 408.25 crore and laid the foundation stone for 144 new projects worth Rs 32.32 crore, according to the release.
He also distributed welfare assistance worth Rs 34.72 crore to 9,343 beneficiaries.
The 89 completed projects were executed by departments such as Public Works and Housing and Urban Development, and cover civic works as well. They include a new multi-storey block at the Sulur Government Hospital, built at a cost of Rs 3.50 crore.
The new projects comprise sub-health centre buildings in Kinathukadavu taluk, kitchen sheds and Anganwadi centres in rural local bodies, new panchayat office buildings, and the construction of stormwater drains and drinking water pipelines and restoration of school boundary walls within Coimbatore Corporation limits.
The welfare assistance included land pattas and e-pattas, forest rights pattas, allotment orders for housing units at Ezhil Nagar, aid through the Muslim Women’s Aid Society, free sewing machines, support under schemes such as the New Entrepreneur-cum-Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS) and the Annal Ambedkar Business Champions Scheme, and assistance for sanitation workers through the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation (TAHDCO).
Farmers received subsidies and equipment under the National Food Security Mission, micro-irrigation systems through the Horticulture Department and agricultural mechanisation support.
Vijay handed over free toolkits, uniforms and identity cards to 1,703 government ITI students, besides marriage assistance, crop loans, livestock rearing loans and 2,000 new family ration cards.
Ministers N Anand, K A Sengottaiyan, A Rajmohan, V Sampath Kumar and K Vignesh, local legislators, School Education Secretary J Innocent Divya, Director of Public Libraries S Jayanthi, Coimbatore district Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar, Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner Katta Ravi Teja and other senior officials attended the event. PTI JSP SSK
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