KOCHI: When MF Edward first rented his shop near Elamkulam metro station nearly 15 years ago, customers could walk straight in from the road. Today, both he and potential customers have to climb down a few steps to do the same, for what was once a ground-floor shop now sits below road level. Why? Years of unscientific road work.
“When they do up the road, they don’t remove the previous tar work — they lay the new tar atop the old. Several such work over the years have steadily raised the height of this road, effectively pushing the shops that line it into a ‘basement’,” Edward told TNIE.
This is one half of the problem. The other is the blanket commissioning of new footpath models that don’t factor in the peculiarities of each location. The redevelopment of the footpath and walkway from Vyttila to Panampilly Nagar was a project by the Kochi Metro Rail Limited. “They have done the work very well. But when it came to our location, they should have noticed the road here is already high and tailored their design to accommodate this peculiarity. Sadly, that didn’t happen,” Edward said.
When the basic footpath work was done, the shops here were already turned into sunken basement spaces, and any more tile overlays would have made the shops impossible to enter without severe inconvenience or total obstruction.
“Even as it is, these folks are having a hard time,” local councillor P D Martin said.
Indeed, the stretch outside these shops is where a lot of accidents have happened in the past. At night, vehicles, mostly bikes, that enjoy the nearly 1.2 km of straight road from Vyttila are forced to take a sharp turn just after the Elamkulam metro station.
“Those speeding will find it impossible to turn in that angle and will ram into our shops. I’ve had two such accidents in the recent past, and need I say, the damages run into several thousands. Last time, I had to change the glass window, the shutter, etc,” Edward said.
Dennis, who runs a fast-food shop nearby, said they are not averse to development.
“We want development. Ideally, what needs to be done now is the replacement of the slabs currently laid with stronger ones. Because what was laid was only a temporary measure until the earlier footpath development could begin. These cannot hold the weight of vehicles parked on them,” he said.
Indeed, many slabs are broken. Edward suggested erecting guardrails to protect shops and occupants from speeding vehicles. “Funds allocated for the project could be redirected for this. It would also curb illegal parking on the footpath.”
However, ex-councillor Malini Kurup said that the window to take up that project has closed. “KMRL had proposed to cut down the height of the drainage and redevelop the footpath and overlay it with tiles as per the suggestions of the shop owners. But because the work was stalled for a long time, the window to execute it has closed.”