An old pothole near the Palarivattom Metro Station claimed the life of 23-year-old Yedulal from Koonammavu on Thursday.
Soon after the accident a blame game began between the Public Works Department and the Kerala Water Authority.
It was a pothole developed over the last four months following an unplugged leak in the water supply pipe underneath that caused the accident. Extreme laxity by these agencies had turned it into a gaping crater. Following the public uproar, the KWA began filling the pothole later in the night.
The elder son of Nisha and Lalan, who run a tailoring shop at Cheriapilly, Yedulal was an employee of Softel Technologies, Kadavanthra. He fell off his two-wheeler as its handle brushed against a barricade kept in front of the pothole and a tanker lorry which was coming in the same direction, ran over him, according to the police.
He was taken immediately to a private hospital but was declared brought dead. The police completed the inquest and handed over the body to the relatives after post-mortem at the General Hospital. The pothole that claimed Yedulal’s life had been left as such even as patch work was done on the remainder of the road in front of the metro station about a week ago.
Commuters said concrete lumps used for making footpaths were dumped into the pothole in a dangerous manner. Recently, a barricade was set up in its front which narrowed the road, resulting in heavy traffic congestion.
While the Kerala Water Authority executive engineer told The Hindu that they had written to the PWD about a leak in the 700-mm distribution line on September 18 and had sought permission to dig the road to plug the leak, the PWD had denied permission. “We require PWD permission as well as traffic police sanction to get the job done. Unless we are given PWD permission, we cannot approach the traffic police,” said the KWA official.
However, a PWD official stated that they had denied permission because it was raining heavily during that time. No permission was given at that time, but the KWA never followed it up later to rectify the damage, said the official. Over time, the leak had loosened the tarred portion, causing the hole to become a yawning crater stretching towards the centre of the road. As Kochi Metro widened the road, the pipeline, which was earlier on the side of the road, became closer to the broadened road’s centre. The large size of the pothole was observed recently and there was a communication to the KWA to get the work done. In case of emergencies, there is no need to wait for official letters to get the work done, the official said. T.J. Vinod, MLA, accused the officials of apathy. Former High Court judge B. Kemal Pasha wanted criminal cases registered against officials who left the pothole open for months.
