KOCHI: The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has done it again. The pothole-filled Thammanam-Vyttila Road that was asphalted just a week back was dug by the person contracted by the KWA in the dead of the night. The road, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department (PWD), had been repaired after laying in a dilapidated condition for more than a month.
The residents, councillor of ward number 45 and people belonging to various political organisations held a vociferous protest against the KWA action on Monday. Some of the protestors even stood inside the huge gaping pit near the Ponnurunni Railway Bridge and relented only after the District Collector S Suhas arrived on the spot and assured them of immediate action. The protestors also blocked the road for more than an hour.
“There is a limit,” said an agitated P B Sudhir, one of the protestors. “We had just got the KWA to fill the hole they had dug in Narayanan Asan Road,” he said. According to him, the residents along with the ward councillor had to visit the KWA executive engineer’s office several times to get the pit filled.“But KWA always had some or other excuse to make. Whenever we approached them to fill the pit, the KWA engineer would say they are yet to resolve the pressure issue in the supply line,” said Sudhir. KWA had assured us that it will finish the pressure testing work by December 26, he said adding, now it is December 30.
It is at this time that they have gone and dug up the freshly tarred road, said Sudhir. According to Nisha Dhinesh, councillor of ward 45, the root cause of the entire problem is the lack of coordination between the departments concerned. “The Thammanam-Vyttila Road which had been in a dilapidated condition got a new look overnight,” she said.
“Even though it came as good news for the residents, it was only later that I came to know KWA is planning to lay another set of pipes under this road!” said Nisha. “There might have been a miscommunication. But in the end, it is the people who have to suffer due to the lackadaisical attitude of the officials,” said Nisha.
“The KWA officials are not even bothered to monitor the work of their contractor. The engineer promises one thing while the contractor does another. Even though the engineer said that the works will be over by December end, the residents pointed out that the contractor had stopped working and will resume only by January 2,” said the councillor.
All a misunderstanding: KWA
According to a KWA engineer, it is all a big misunderstanding. “KWA had notified the PWD about the need to carry out the work. The PWD authorities said that since the road is being repaired in the BMBC mode, even though the BM layer has been paved we can go ahead with our work. According to them, the patch would smoothen over once the BC layer was laid,” said the engineer.
However, all the plans got tossed after the people took affront, added the engineer. According to KWA, they met with the deputy mayor K R Premakumar and have requested him to call a meeting of all the stakeholders to iron out the misgivings. “The Ponnurunni and Narayanan Assan Roads are separate projects and hence have different contractors,” said the engineer. The contractor for the Ponnurunni project is Shaji K Mathew while Sali P Mathai has been given the work of Narayanan Assan Road.
PIT to be closed immediately
The District Collector, in a meeting, assured the members of the action council that the pit will be closed before January 1. District Collector S Suhas directed the police department to post cops near the pit located very close to the Ponnurunni Railway Overbridge to prevent motorists from unwittingly falling into it