KOCHI: Situated at the border of two major districts, Piravom panchayat is one of the few towns where development and conservation of nature are in perfect harmony. Piravom which is 33 km off Kochi and 39 km away from Kottayam, is fast developing into one of the major satellite townships of Ernakulam. The area also boasts of verdant beauty enhanced by the Muvattupuzha river that flows through the heart of the town.
However, with a population of more than 30,000, Piravom truly deserves municipality status, believe civic administrators of the panchayat. “Piravom has been included in the list of 35 new municipalities recommended by the UDF sub-committee this year. We hope that the panchayat will be accorded municipality status soon, which will pave the way for more development activities,” said Piravom grama panchayat president Sabu K Jacob.
At present, the local body gets `2 crore annual grant from the government just like the other local bodies. “But, it being one of the major towns and centralised areas of the constituency, the funds are not enough to meet the requirements of infrastructure development. If elevated to a municipality, more development projects can be implemented as we will get funds from the Union Government as well. The fund allocation will also be increased to `16 crore annually which will make a huge difference to the infrastructure development,” he said.
The major hurdle before the authorities are the narrow roads at centre of the town, which is already a developed area. Widening of the existing road is not possible as land acquisition would be a very expensive affair. The only way out for the authorities for decongesting the town is to build a bypass through which the vehicles arriving from Ernakulam side can head for their destination without touching Piravom town.
New bridge
A new bridge at Excise Kadavu will help decongest the town and offer better connectivity to the proposed Nedumbassery -Sabarimala State Highway.
“The Public Works Department (PWD) has already prepared the detailed project report for the bridge at Excise Kadavu. The total estimated cost of the project is `40 crore. The 170-m-long bridge with a width of 12 m will have a special curved design. Once the new bridge is completed, the traffic to and from Ernakulam side can be rerouted through the bridge and the vehicles can keep off the town,” said Sabu.
Piravom is in dire need of more number of buses. Private buses conduct 116 services per day to Ernakulam.
But, after 7.30 pm, there are hardly any buses towards Ernakulam. The services are few and far between from Ernakulam to Piravom also.
Sabu said that they expected the Kochi Metro Rail to be extended to Piravom. “The second phase will see the Metro Rail being extended to Mulanthuruthy and we hope that it will be extended to Piravom during the third phase turning Piravom into one of the most important satellite towns of Kochi,” he said.
Water resources is another major blessing for Piravom with the Muvattupuzha river as the major source. “However, we need to upgrade the existing supply system and the old pipes need to be replaced as the water projects were implemented around 25 years ago,” Sabu said.
Meanwhile, opposition leader of the grama panchayat K P Salim said that the ruling front has failed in taking steps to speed up the Excise Kadavu bridge project.
“It is high time that the project was implemented. Instead of focusing on infrastructure projects on a priority basis they are trying to come up with more glamorous projects like shopping malls. Interestingly, the panchayat office is functioning in a rented building while the existing grama panchayat hall has been give to Supplyco for mall construction,” alleged Salim.