In order to make the cleaning of canals in the city more effective and efficient, the Kochi corporation will soon launch a Total Station Survey which will help the civic body assess the boundaries of the canals.
The Survey is expected to help the Corporation authorities in identifying the canals with no service roads. Once the survey is completed, the Corporation will construct service roads.
“There is no proper access to the majority of arterial canals in the city. Manual cleaning is a Herculean task in most of them. As there are no service roads, it is difficult to use JCB and other machines for cleaning purpose. Hence service roads are a must,” said Kochi Corporation Town Planning Committee chairman K J Sohan.
He said the Total Station Survey was the preliminary step for the construction of the service roads. “The Total Station Survey will help us in gathering the basic information for initiating the project. After the survey, the report will be presented at the Corporation Council for its nod,” he said.
The project was actually mooted by the civic body two years ago, but it did not materialise. The recent allegations raised by the CPM against the Lulu Mall for encroaching upon canals for the construction of a bridge near it which landed the Corporation in trouble may be another reason for coming up with the Total Station Survey. The Corporation authorities are of the firm belief that the survey will help in preventing encroachments along the canals.
About 25 canals pass through the city. Thevara-Perandoor, Pashnithode, Rameswaram, Kalvathy and Pandarachal are the major ones.
The construction of the service roads will begin once the survey is completed. But the major hurdle is land acquisition. However, the official said that they were hopeful of finding an apt plan for raising funds for land acquisition.