Faced with the prospect of having to dismantle tiles over footpaths in order to clean drains, the Kochi Corporation has exhorted agencies that construct or renovate footpaths and drains to install manholes at frequent intervals.
The civic body had received considerable flak for dismantling many footpaths that had been renovated and paved with tiles by Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) on M.G. Road as part of Kochi metro’s construction works. Both the metro agency and Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) had renovated drains and footpaths, on both sides of the metro corridor and along arterial roads in the city hub. KMRL had said that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which executed the metro and footpath works, had installed steel hooks atop slabs in order to safely pull them up to clean drains beneath. But, Corporation officials said it was not practical always and hence the need to remove them with the help of iron bars or earthmovers.
The Ernakulam District Residents Association Apex Council (EDRAAC) and NGOs such as Ernakulam Vikasana Samithi have been frequently demanding steps to clean drains and stern action against hotels and other establishments that let out untreated effluents into drains.
Mayor M. Anilkumar cited the need for manholes at frequent intervals to clean drains, if needed, with the help of the jetting and suction machine introduced earlier this year. It will avoid the need to break tiles and to remove concrete slabs in order to clean or declog drains. The machine can clean drains only up to a certain limit on either side of drain openings. The need to ready adequate number of manholes and to construct utility ducts on footpaths (to prevent trenching of roads and pavements) would be taken up with KMRL, which was engaged in developing standardised footpaths on both sides of the Manorama Junction-Thripunithura corridor, and also with other agencies, he added.
On the dumping of untreated food and other effluents into drains, he said a dozen hotels were issued closure notices when M.G. Road and its byroads were inundated in the rains over a year ago. “They were permitted to resume functioning only after they established effluent treatment plants on their premises. It has of late come to our notice that some of them continue to discharge untreated waste into drains, choking them. The Corporation has made it clear that they will be closed down if untreated waste or sledge is let out along with water,” he added.
Public Works department (PWD) sources said the agency generally constructed drains on both sides of roads it owned and handed over their maintenance to the Kochi Corporation. “We took up drain cleaning on the Madhava Pharmacy Junction-KPCC Junction stretch of M.G. Road this year, since the High Court demanded speedy measures to avert inundation of M.G. Road, side roads and shops in the aftermath of the 2021 monsoon.”
“It has come to our notice that 50% of tiled footpaths were broken to clean drains, affecting traders and also endangering the life of pedestrians. Excavators were initially deployed to remove slabs every few metres on the corridor. Rest of the drains will be cleaned with the help of the jetting-cum-suction machine whose nozzle can cover a 40-metre stretch,” they said.
