The Sahodaran Ayyappan and the Edapally-High Court roads would remain motorable and free of trenches if the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) would have its way.
The KSUDP authorities have decided not to allow the trenching of roads that are re-laid using the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funds. The decision would benefit the city dwellers using these roads and put an end to the practice of cutting them open after the completion of road re-laying works, civic authorities said.
The attempts of a private telecom operator and the Kerala State Electricity Board to cut open the roads for laying cables was met with stiff resistance from the KSUDP recently.
The KSEB had approached the KSUDP for digging the road connecting High Court and Edapally for laying its cables. By that time, the agency had completed the relaying work up to Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium junction. The KSEB would be asked to use the trenchless technology or re-route the cabling through parallel roads and not to cut open the re-laid road stretch, officials said.
The workers of the telecom company were stopped from cutting the road at midnight by the project authorities.
The Sahodaran Ayyappan and Edapally-High Court roads are being developed and re-laid confirming to international standards and the contractor who is executing the work has given a five-year guarantee for the work. As per the work agreement, the contractor will have to repair the roads at his own expense if the roads get damaged. The guarantee clause cannot be invoked if the roads are damaged by way of trenching leading to huge revenue loss to the civic authorities, officials said.
The Kochi Project Manager of the KSUDP has cautioned the agencies which are unauthorisedly trenching the roads to abstain from the work. It has come to the notice of the Kochi Corporation that some agencies were unauthorisedly damaging the surface of the roads which were recently re-laid. These agencies would be held responsible for the loss sustained by the civic body and legal action would be initiated against them for recovering the loss, the Project Manager said.
