Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) will try to complete a bulk of its road and footpath/drain renovation works by December, barring smart road works in Fort Kochi and the renovation of Banerjee Road, which may take a few more months to get over, official sources said.
The agency had attributed the inordinate delay in completing the works to the pandemic situation and the termination of the services of a contracting firm which had been vested with executing smart road works in Fort Kochi. The firm was thereafter provided time till October end to complete the works, after it approached the High Court. Even then, it is unlikely that it will be able to complete smart road works in Fort Kochi, they added.
Encroachments
The plethora of utility lines beneath roads and footpaths, which have to be relocated, is yet another reason for the delay in completing the works. Subsequently, CSML had to opt for wide tubes to route them, in places where building utility ducts was tough. Rampant permanent and semi-permanent encroachments into public spaces is yet another reason for the slow progress of works, what with up to 40% of footpaths and roads being encroached in locales like Fort Kochi, it is learnt.
In the meantime, Ernakulam Vikasana Samity, has expressed its angst at the Kochi Corporation, the police and CSML doing little to remove flex boards and hoardings of political parties that occupy almost the entire width of the newly renovated footpaths of smart and other roads in the city. “Such instances abound on Mullassery Canal Road and TD Road, forcing pedestrians to walk through the tarred road. Even worse, vendors and other encroachers have occupied almost the entire width of the footpaths of the recently renovated smart road corridor, Abraham Madamakkal Road that links the High Court Junction and the Chatiath Road,” said K.S. Dileep Kumar of the Samity.
