Jolted by contempt petition, KSUDP tells court drain works to start soon

The Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) Director on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that once KSUD received approval from the ADB for the updated initial environmental clearance, the drain works at Panampilly Nagar would resume.

KSUDP made the submission before the Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice K. Vinod Chandran when a contempt case came up for hearing.

KSUDP Director said that earnest efforts were being made to implement the project. The works were expected to be completed by October end.

The contempt petition was filed by Peter Augustine, resident in the area alleging that the Kochi Corporation had failed to comply with a court directive to complete the drain works.

In an affidavit K.V. Mohankumar, Project Director, KSUDP said that the project for the construction of the drain was being implemented with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank. There was a change of alignments in the project. When there was a modification of the original proposal, concurrence from the ADB was required to resume the works.

The petitioner pointed out that the court while issuing the directive had earlier made it clear that in view of the monsoon, all steps should be taken to complete the work in time to avoid unnecessary hardships and inconvenience to the residents of the locality.

However, it did not take any steps to resume the constructions. The failure of the corporation to comply with the directive amounted to contempt of court, the petitioner submitted.