Residents protest against revised drainage project

A drainage being built across the East Hill-East Nadakkavu road in Kozhikode.

Residents on the East Hill-Karaparamba stretch of the Mini-bypass have protested against the closure of the link roads following the construction of a drainage for more than two months.

The worst affected are the residents living on either side of Navarang Road. “The vehicular traffic to this residential colony is totally impaired as the service road has been cordoned off to facilitate the trench work of the new drain on the Mini-bypass. Even emergency vehicles such as an ambulance is unable to enter the colony, which is predominantly occupied by senior citizens and dozens of totally bed-ridden patients,” said Ashok Veetil, joint secretary, Navarang Residents’ Association.

Now the civil work has been in a frozen state for weeks together. The issue started when PWD officials introduced some revisions to the original plan, by allowing a spillover exit to a tiny ‘surface drain’ situated on Navarang Road from the under- construction drain.

In fact, the proposal to construct the drain was to carry huge volume of rainwater from the massive underground culvert recently reconstructed on the Mini-bypass that first collects rainwater from the surrounding area starting from West Hill Barracks and then redirects to the Connolly Canal. So, the residents of this area objected to this “unscientific alteration” to the design, said B. Raman and Rimsy Jayan, president and secretary of the association.

Despite petitioning A. Pradeep Kumar, MLA, and ward councillor Beena Rajan, the PWD officials seemed determined to stick to their revised plans. The residents also blamed the councillor for not openly coming forward to help them although she claimed to support the issue.

Over a decade, people in this area were facing flooding during rains. “The last two years were notorious due to the unprecedented rainfall. It is a fact that the locality, which was once a vast open field, has now converted into one of the most populated residential area and the natural drains and streams once existed have mostly vanished on the face of rampant urbanisation,” Mr. Ashok said.

Memorandums have also been submitted to the District Collector and the Commissioner of Police to solve the issue, the residents said.