KOCHI : It only took a couple of hours of heavy rainfall on Thursday for the Ernakulam KSRTC bus station to get inundated, just like what happened on Wednesday. Once again, water from the drain entered the station master’s room and passenger waiting area. As a result, commuters, many of them long-distance travellers, couldn’t enter the station and were forced to board buses from the main road.
The pathetic situation at KSRTC bus station continues even as tall promises have been made to modernise the facility on the lines of the Vyttila Mobility Hub. The work has not been taken up despite the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd allocating Rs 12 crore for the project months ago. The work, entrusted to the Vyttila Mobility Hub Society (VMHS), was originally scheduled to start in February.
“There is a huge delay in implementing the project. Even preparation of the detailed project report is not over. Upon seeing the plight of passengers, we contacted the VMHS several times, but they are citing reasons like staff shortage. The project is now literally held up with the rains arriving,” said Ernakulam MLA T Vinod.
“It’s not like previous years. It’s the drainage water that is entering the old building now following flooding of the nearby drainage. Just three hours of rain on Wednesday inundated the bus station. The station was flooded again in the continuous rain on Thursday,” said a KSRTC official.
As per the proposal, the new bus stand will come up at the existing KSRTC workshop across the AL Jacob railway over-bridge, while the existing old building will be demolished. “Both KSRTC and inter-state private buses will operate from there. I’ve taken up the delay with Industries Minister P Rajeeve, who has promised to look into the issue,” Vinod said.
Infopark heaves a sigh of relief
Infopark, which was inundated on Wednesday following the rain, did not see major waterlogging on Thursday. The unexpected rain on Wednesday had flooded the campus even though pre-monsoon cleaning works had been carried out in the canal and drains. Infopark CEO Susanth Kurunthil said the temporary bund Kozhizhira in the Kadambrayar River led to the flooding in the IT park. “However, the district collector was alerted and irrigation department officials removed the bund. We cleared all the weeds and debris that accumulated in the drain’s mouth. There was waterlogging on the campus on Thursday,” said Kurunthil.