KOCHI: The Muziris Heritage Project, India’s largest green culture conservation initiative undertaken along the stretch of the Periyar River between North Paravur and Kodungalloor, is in limbo.
Though the State government asserts in its progress card that the second phase of the project, initiated during the term of the last LDF government led by V.S. Achuthanandan, is under way, ground reality suggests otherwise.
‘Stalled for a year’
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“The project has been stalled for a year now,” fumes V.D. Satheesan, MLA representing North Paravur who is on the board of directors of the Muziris Projects Ltd – the company floated to implement the ambitious project. The company itself is in tatters, with no managing director while the special officer, the key coordinator among various departments involved in the project, retired from service on May 31.
“However, director board meetings are held as a matter of routine to comply with the company norms. One such meeting is slated to happen on Tuesday (June 27) as well, with no agenda. I’ve decided to give the meeting a miss. What’s the point when the decisions taken earlier remain unimplemented?” asks Mr. Satheesan.
The project looked set to be revived early this year, when the board was reconstituted and there were signs of work getting back on the track. Tourism officials had then said that the works pending from the first phase would be completed in six months and the second phase would be fully under way soon afterwards. “But nothing happened,” rues Mr. Satheesan, who oversaw work at 14 sites, part of the project in his constituency. “The government took eight months to reconstitute the board, but several major pending works remain unattended even now.”
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Quality of work
Mr. Satheesan is on record decrying the quality of work done by KITCO, which executes the conservation works based on the drawings, sketches and qualitative stipulations provided by conservation architect of the project, Benny Kuriakose. “But their work is inferior and leaves a lot to be desired. I even made a suggestion that the poor quality work it carried out in the Paravur market be dismantled,” says Mr. Satheesan.
In fact, a four-volume inspection report of over 1,000 pages submitted by Mr. Kuriakose in May this year, depicts in detail, with sketches and photographs, the state of each of the 23 sites with recommendations to carry out rectification to set right minor defects in painting and plastering to major deviations from drawings, quality of timber and steel and the like.
“The PWD would have done a much better job,” says Mr. Satheesan.
‘Transfer project’
Recently, at a meeting of cultural and literary leaders called by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kochi, writer Sethu drew his attention to the sorry state of affairs concerning the project. “It is a culture and heritage conservation project and if the Tourism Department is unable to implement it the way it should be, it is better to transfer it to the Culture Department,” he had said. “The project had a very endearing blueprint, but it fell through somewhere along the way. It is not just about construction. There’s archaeology, history, conservation of traditional artisanship and cultures of communities in the region involved in it. It should therefore be a curatorial project under the Department of Culture,” Mr. Sethu told The Hindu .