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        Corporation has decided to move closer to the public by leveraging the mobile technology which would be used to address the civic issues of the city wards.

        The objective: Public would be given a telephone directory listing out the mobile numbers of all the city councillors and ward engineers as a ready reckoner for effective redress of civic woes. At a public function on Sunday at T Nagar, Local Administration Minister M K Stalin had issued 677 mobile handsets with sim cards to 155 ward councillors, divisional and executive engineers, conservancy inspectors, sanitary inspectors, 10 zonal officers and nearly 30 heads of department of the Corporation.

        In the next few days, mobile numbers for the councillors would be activated. One has to substitute the last three digits of mobile number: 94451 90000 (for the Mayor) with his or her ward number to talk to area councillor. For example, if it is ward - 129 then number: 94451 90129 would connect to S P Muthuvel, councillor of that ward (Saligramam and Vadapalani). Through mobile connectivity, the public could register their civic grievances with the councillors directly.

        Further, a uniform four-digit number would be unveiled after the opening of the tender bidding for mobile operators at the Ripon Buildings on 3 August. 'All mobile operators, including BSNL, can bid for the undertaking of SMS-based networking and service offering for the Corporation. The chosen bidder has to form a joint venture with a private agency or enter into an agreement with terms and conditions for installing the SMS-based complaints cell to monitor the incoming messages and the response (or action taken) that are being sent out,' said Rajesh Lakhoni, Commissioner. The bidder would set up a network centre at the Corporation to monitor SMS traffic with adequate manpower and support systems.

        The telephone directory and the operating manual for using SMS would be uploaded on the website: www.chennaicorporation.com and the booklets would be freely available at the zonal and ward offices for public access. 'With the mobile handsets, the recurring civic issues can be addressed effectively. Also, councillors have an opportunity to reach out to their wards like never before with mobile phones bridging the gap between the public and the civic officials,' said K Dhanasekaran, chairman, Zone-IX (Saidapet) and councillor (ward-130). Through his own initiative, he had printed an exclusive booklet having phone numbers of all the ward engineers, councillors (under zone-IX) and civic undertakings like TNEB and Metrowater for the benefit of residents. Having distributed the booklets, he had earned the goodwill of his constituency and attends to phone complaints of civic issues in his typical fashion of networking with ward officials and police.

        The shortlisted bidders have to make presentations to the Corporation on their mode of SMS networking, a 24 x 7 operation, and the private operator would be selected only after that screening process, according to official sources. Once selected, the private operator would install and operate the SMS platform with their own technical staff and the contract would be reviewed after one year.