The State government is contemplating a Rs.30-crore project to install sewage pipelines on both sides of the Parvathy Puthanar to carry sewage from households on the riverbanks to the upcoming Muttathara sewage treatment plant, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.
He was addressing a public meeting organised by the Residents Association of Muttathara ward Coordination Committee to announce a drainage connection project for the region.
Mr. Sivakumar said the project report for the pipeline project was under preparation.
Sidewalls for the river, deepening and de-silting, and connection of the pipelines to the Muttathara sewage treatment plant were the main components of the project, which in turn will speed up efforts to clean the Parvathy Puthanar, he said.
In fact, the Muttathara area was on the threshold of witnessing major infrastructure changes, with several projects on the cards, he said. These included a Rs.52-crore project for a 110-kV substation on a one-acre site at Muttathara; a Rs.30-crore fishing net manufacturing factory near Beemapally that was expected to generate nearly 250 jobs; an engineering college under the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education (CAPE) on a five-acre site; a two-acre regional office of Indira Gandhi National Open University; and a computerised driving test centre of the State Transport Department for which 1.5 acres had been sanctioned. With land allotted for most of these projects, work on them would begin soon, the Minister said.
The drainage connection project, he said, would bring about a major change in the area since the residents now had no option but to dump garbage and let sewage flow into the Parvathy Puthanar. The public here had been demanding a drainage connection for several years. With the residents’ association coordination committee relentlessly pursuing the matter, the government had in February decided to issue tenders. These were finalised recently and the work would be awarded soon, Mr. Sivakumar said.
Mayor K. Chandrika and coordination committee general secretary Muttathara Mohanan and president R. Vijayan were present.
