It may take at least six more months for the Mullassery canal restoration work to resume. The work had come to a grinding halt some three months ago when pre-monsoon showers hit the city, forcing Irrigation department officials to suspend it.
Though the weather situation has improved following a let-up in rains, the delay in removing service lines, including those of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), along the canal is holding up the work.
Bids floated for removing and re-laying water supply and sewerage pipelines along the canal will be opened on September 5. The work had to be re-tendered thrice as there were no takers for the ₹3.12 crore project, said a senior KWA official.
The restoration of the canal that runs through the city is being implemented as part of Operation Breakthrough to alleviate flooding in the city. The delay in completing the work had resulted in heavy flooding in several parts of the central city area, including places near the KSRTC bus stand, during the past few months.
Once the bid is approved, work has to be sanctioned and agreement signed within a fortnight. The process will be completed in the last week of September. It may take around five months for the work to be completed under ideal conditions. It has to be carried out with utmost caution as drinking water supply lines run through the canal. Re-laying of pipes may be hopefully over by February. The work will be executed in reaches of 50-metre length, the official said.
Meanwhile officials of the Irrigation department, which is implementing the restoration project, maintained that the work could be resumed only after removing pipelines laid along the Fashion Street segment of the canal. Nearly 80 shops on the street were relocated to Ambedkar Stadium near the KSRTC bus stand to facilitate canal work.
The scheme is to restore the canal to its original width and depth and to correct the slope of the floor to enable free flow of floodwaters.
