Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has directed the Ernakulam District Collector to prepare the document addressing the water logging in the city, in consultation with the legislators from the city, Kochi Corporation and various government departments.
The document thus prepared will be discussed at the government level to prepare a project document. The decision was made at a meeting convened by the Chief Minister in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
Taking part in the discussion, Deputy Mayor B. Bhadra said that the corporation alone would not be able to shoulder the cost of a comprehensive project for addressing water logging in the city, considering the financial constraints of the civic body. The shortfall in funds for the project needs to be provided by the government, failing which the projects cannot be implemented, she said.
Responding to the submission of the Kochi Corporation, the Chief Minister assured the civic body to consider the proposal for gap funding, Ms. Bhadra said.
The representatives of Delhi Metro Railway Corporation, Greater Cochin Development Authority, district administration and various government departments will be on the committee that would be formed for drafting the proposal for Kochi, she said.
Soumini Jain, the Chairperson of the Works Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation, said that most of the culverts in the city need to be raised from the existing levels as flood water enters them during heavy rain.
The silt that is accumulating in the canals prevents the free flow of water and the desilting operations done annually have only a limited effect.
The deepening of the barmouth at Thevara and desilting of the major canals also need to be done for draining the flood waters, said Ms. Jain, who also attended the Thiruvananthapuram deliberations.
The cables and wires and water supply pipelines laid along the canals by various agencies were also affecting the free flow of water.
While an agency had earlier prepared a project for addressing the water logging in the central city area, nothing has been done for the West Kochi region.
These aspects have to be highlighted in the project document that is to be prepared, she said.
K. Babu, Minister for Excise; Benny Behenan, Dominic Presentation and Hibi Eden, MLAs; were also present at the meeting. Mr. Eden will coordinate the meeting to be held for the preparation of the document.
