The scattered showers that kissed Kochi last week were, no doubt, a welcome break from the sweltering summer heat. But for those living along Mullassery Canal Road, any rain is cause for concern.
For here, there is now neither a road nor a canal — only a quicksand of good intentions, a swamp of what happens when too many government desks share a single ditch.
First envisioned in 2020 as a “three-month project” to tame urban flooding, the canal’s rejuvenation has dragged on for over five years.
Gouged open, half-dug, its bed littered with pipes and gunny bags, Mullasserry today is, as Lal Singh, who runs a chaat joint nearby, puts it, “a jugaad gone jangli”.
Even a stern rap from the High Court this February has failed to fast-track progress. Though the deadline has been extended to May 31, local residents believe timelines have become a running joke among those involved in the project.
Now, with the monsoon just weeks away, they seem certain that the project will be stuck again, just like the city’s drains during the first rains.
A vital waterway, once
To understand how a simple canal restoration devolved into civic paralysis, we must first understand what Mullasserry once was. “The 1.3km stretch, which connected Perandoor canal to the backwaters, was once an arterial waterway. Lush greenery flanked either side, and water gushed through it,” recalls 76-year-old P K Balan, a longtime resident of the area.
Later, when water transport declined, the canal assumed a no less crucial role — draining stormwater from Kochi’s burgeoning urban heartland. And this it did with quiet efficiency for several years, if not decades, until a spate of ‘developmental’ works, adds Balan.
In the early 2000s, concrete slabs were rolled across much of the channel, converting it into a road and some sections into parking bays and Fashion Street.
What vanished was hydraulic capacity. “The slabs pinched the canal’s width, garbage collected, and every downpour left ankle-deep puddles outside the railway station and the bus stand,” recalls T Ravindran, another resident.
It took the 2019 floods to trigger change. Torrential downpour submerged Kochi’s roads, sparking public outrage. Out of that fury was born ‘Operation Breakthrough’, a city-wide flood mitigation mission. Mullassery Canal’s revival was declared a priority.
“The plan to restore the canal to its original depth and width was solid, at least on paper,” says a former official of the minor irrigation department, which was entrusted with the work.
But its implementation proved to be another story.
Messed up
First, no contractor wanted the job. It was a logistical nightmare — a central city project, cutting through residential neighbourhoods and main roads. “To a contractor, that paper must have screamed ‘severe headache,’” the official says.
Only in 2022 did K S Bijli, who had led canal work in Paravoor, take up the challenge. “But nothing,” the contractor says, “has been as complex as the Mullasserry work.”
Protests erupted from Fashion Street vendors. Relocating them to Ambedkar Stadium dragged on for months. Then, just days into the work, the crew struck an underground snarl of utilities that had not been mapped accurately.
Ageing drinking-water lines and a ribbon of sewer pipes traversed the canal, and relocating them required the cooperation (and often, cash) of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and other agencies. “Now, this was not taken into account when the contract was drawn up,” Bijli says.
Though KWA was roped in, by the time their work was complete, it was March 2024, and three more deadlines had passed. Even then, KWA’s efforts were deemed inadequate as more pipes kept turning up.
The KWA blames the terrain. “There is no space. Both sides of the road are packed. Options for rerouting are few,” says a KWA official. Though a tender was floated to take care of the pipes, there were, unsurprisingly, no takers.
Each time a new pipe surfaced, Bijli’s crew leapfrogged to another stretch, bleeding time and money. “We have halted work at least six times because another agency hadn’t finished its bit,” he says.
Attempting workarounds led to pipe damage, raising fears of water contamination, which was something officials couldn’t risk.
Each delay pushed work into the monsoon window, which further stalled work. “We can only work during the dry spell, i.e. from November to April. Otherwise, the retaining walls we build risk even greater flooding,” explains an irrigation official.
But where work ends is not necessarily where work resumes, the local residents complain.
An ugly patchwork
The result is a stretch of muddy pits and stalled shops. “Many have left,” says Cindy (name changed), who runs a grocery. Indeed, most homes here have been converted into lodges or hostels. Others are overrun with wild growth and dust.
For the few who cling on, life is a slog. “Business is slim,” says Mahesh M, who runs a tourist home. “The road is not only not motorable, but the connectivity, too, has been lost.”
Mohammed Salim, who runs a footwear store, echoes the view: “Who would want to traverse this patch of dirt?”
Manikuttan, a tenant in the area, says flooding is now routine. “We have had to install heavy industry motors to pump water from our lanes every monsoon,” he shrugs.
Blame game
The core problem remains unchanged: poor coordination. “Each agency blames the other. And the contractor is clearly ill-equipped to handle a work of this capacity,” Balan points out.
Apparently, Bijli had requested to be relieved from the Mullassery Canal work earlier this year. Another tender for the remainder of the project has been called, leaving Bijli only the task of linking Mullasserry to the old canal network.
Ayyappan, who manages Bijli’s work site, says that only a few portions are left to complete. "Currently, we are working towards linking the old canal with the Mullassery stretch. Only this time, with more depth to accommodate the excess stormwater," he says.
But the residents and businesses that flank the canal are not pleased with the band-aid approach. Mullassery Canal’s revival leaves much to be desired, they say.
Paper plans
Now, a Rs19-crore drainage line from Ernakulam Jn railway station to Vembanad Lake is mooted to ease the load on Mullassery. ‘Daylighting’ the canal is also an option — i.e. removing the concrete slabs.
“The road was a mistake. Ideally, this stretch should remain a water body,” maintains the irrigation official. He adds that his department had submitted a proposal to restore the canal to its original form, but it was rejected due to traffic concerns. “Now everyone is paying the price,” he says.
A lead engineer of the irrigation department, meanwhile, is upbeat about being able to ensure optimal stormwater drainage from the soon-to-be completed sections of the Mullassery Canal.
“Before the end of the month, we will complete sections from the KSRTC bus depot to Chittoor Road, and from MG Road to TD Road. This is what is feasible before the monsoon sets in,” the official says.
“In the next phase, we will work on MG Road and the culvert, which connects to the backwaters. Both require technical expertise and a lot of coordination among agencies like the KWA, KMRL and the like. So, under the collector’s chairmanship, we will engage in a joint discussion to detail it out.”
Local councillor Padmaja Menon, however, is unconvinced. She argues that the city’s flood mitigation should “look beyond a mere patch-up job, which is what the current construction work is”.
“There is no coordination between agencies. In fact, they are a loggerhead with each other. The work has dragged on for so many years as a result of it. Even now, just weeks before the monsoons kick in, there is no proper supervision,” says Padmaja.
“No civil engineers are present at the site. Only a bunch of workers. Is there a scientific assessment of work? Nobody knows. Nobody cares, except a few who live in the vicinity. So many, including my mother, have left the place. I have discussed with several experts and they are certain that Mullassery Canal’s upending will lead to desolation of the Kochi heartland.”
For a city like Kochi that grew harnessing the power of waterways and raised an island with feats of engineering, it is a tragedy that a 1km canal could not be restored. The rains are definitely coming, but what about the ‘breakthrough’?