The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : City in a muddle as IFFK set to begin tomorrow

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Thursday, Dec 11, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

City in a muddle as IFFK set to begin tomorrow

Staff Reporter

Posters, banners and welcome arches deface the city

Last-minute preparations fast progressing
Roads leading to screening venues filled with potholes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Last-minute preparations for the 13th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), which commences here on Friday, are fast progressing.

The capital city continues to be defaced with posters, banners and welcome arches put up by various organisations. The roads that lead to the screening venues too remain dilapidated.

Many traffic junctions along the arterial road have been engulfed with banners, posters and welcome arches put up by political parties, trade unions and various organisations for their conferences held here recently. At many places in Thampanoor and Overbridge, the slabs covering the footpath of the busy stretch are lying broken and walking through the stretch is turning to be a risky affair.

The civic authorities have not taken any effort to clean up the mess on the roads and busy junctions before the festival commences. Incidentally, the stretch between Kowdiar and East Fort has been declared as a litter-free zone by the City Corporation long ago.

Lack of conviction

When other cities in the country hold such festivals, the civic authorities there try to project the good image of that city. But the City Corporation and the district panchayat here are not concerned about the image of the capital and also the scope of marketing the destination through the festival.

“The city was one of the cleanest in the country. It was a good opportunity to project the city among the delegates coming from within the country and abroad,” says a citizen,

The road works under the Capital Road Improvement Programme is moving at snail’s pace. The cine houses where the film screenings of the IFFK are to take place are located mostly on Thampanoor-Model School-Bakery road and Ayurveda College-Overbridge-East Fort road.

Bumpy ride

The East Fort-Overbridge road is full of potholes and it is a bumpy ride for the motorists coming through the stretch. The situation along the Thampanoor-Model School road is not better. The Kairali-Sree theatre complex of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), the nerve centres of the festival, is along this road. Potholes have appeared near the GPO and the manhole near the AG’s office is overflowing for the last couple of days. The stretch near the University College has been dug up to relay the cables and to remove the roots of the tree that was cut for widening the road.

The road from Enhcakkal to East Fort is also in a bad shape. The potholes in the junction are yet to be filled, many of the slabs covering the drain have broken and the road has sunk in two places.

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