KOCHI: Despite being featured in the compliance report submitted by the Chief Secretary in the Maradu flat demolition in the Supreme Court on Saturday, the 200-year-old ‘Old Nettoor Market’ which is said to be affected by the controlled implosion hasn’t witnessed any official visits regarding the matter. The clueless market dwellers came to know about the development only through media reports.
“We got to know about the mention through news reports. None of the officials or expert teams has visited the market to inspect the area. As most of the shops were open on all days, we would definitely have notice such a visit. Nothing has happened as such,” said Abdul Salam, a shop owner.
The report, submitted as an affidavit to explain the steps taken to comply with the SC directive to demolish five apartment complexes in Maradu municipality, stated: “There is a 200-year-old market, one masjid, one public school and more than hundreds of dwelling units in the area.”
The shop owners allege that the market has been cited to save the erring officials and flat owners. “Even if they demolish the apartments, we are not expecting any dust menace or tremors during the flat demolition. Though we don’t have any clue about the technicality of the process, we are not expecting any issues as our market is more than 3 km away from the Holy Faith H2O apartment. As far as we know, the controlled implosion is not like dredging for a bridge. Most of these arguments are to support the flat owners,” he said.
However, the environmental assessment report by IIT Madras has stated that the controlled implosion would lead to air pollution caused by fine materials over a radius of more than 1 km, noise pollution that can disturb the fauna and residents, and vibration that could damage buildings nearby and annoy their occupants. It also added that the debris could even contaminate water bodies and settle on the leaves of plants.
The report stated that the waste generated from the demolition would be about 450 kg/sqm of carpet area, of which about 65 per cent would be concrete and about 25 per cent would be brick and mortar. If the concrete is not recycled, it would imply that the demolition of a building of 1 lakh sq ft area would require about 0.1 hectare or 0.25 acres of land for the debris to be piled up at a thickness of 3 m.
The market had around 50 shops earlier and the country boat service to Aroor brought good sale for the outlets. With the opening of Old Nettoor Market bridge in 1999, more than half of the shops were closed down. Currently, the area has around 20 buildings, including residential apartments and shops.
“Currently, fishermen from Valanthakkadu island use the remnants of the old market for selling their daily catch. Other than a few old buildings, there is nothing to be called ‘old’ in this old market. Most of the existing buildings were built during the past few years,” said another resident of the area.
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