Civil Line Road accident: PWD Minister intervenes

The minister said he was extremely unsatisfied with the performance of the PWD officials.
PWD Minister G Sudhakaran (Photo | EPS)
PWD Minister G Sudhakaran (Photo | EPS)

KOCHI: Days after a 23-year-old youth Ebin Paul lost his life at Civil Line Road along the Palarivattom-Kakkanad stretch, PWD Minister G Sudhakaran on Monday came down heavily against the PWD officials in the district.

The minister said he was extremely unsatisfied with the performance of the PWD officials. “I am really worried about the performance of engineers in the district. I am getting a lot of complaints against them. Change in the organisational level is essential and we are working on it. If strict action is required, we will definitely go for it,” said the PWD Minister. He said the department has already initiated action against officials. “We have already suspended an assistant executive engineer and an assistant engineer for failing to carry out maintenance work on the Palarivattom - Kakkanad road despite allocating funds,” said the Minister.

He added that a meeting of the people’s representatives, the District Collector and PWD officers will be held on Thursday. “I had held a meeting with P T Thomas MLA in this regard. Based on that, I have directed the PWD officials to speed up the ongoing work. The meeting will discuss issues pertaining to the road. We will check if there is any procedural delay in starting the repair work,” said the Minister.
However, he refuted allegations that the death of the youngster happened due to the lethargic attitude of the department.

“We cannot say its completely because of that. The procedural delay was there. We will conduct an inquiry into that,” he said adding that the delay in repairing the road happened after the Kochi Metro stopped them from doing it.

“The PWD was set to take up repair works a year ago. But then, the KMRL came up with the extension plan of Kochi Metro to the Kakkanad. There is no point in repairing the road if they have a plan to initiate the work soon. It is also not possible to initiate BMBC by spending a huge amount if the Metro work starts in another two or three years. So, we have decided to initiate the patchwork. Initiating road work in cities like Kochi is a complex one,” added the minister.

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