Kochi’s metro system, the only means of transport linking inundated Aluva and its surrounding areas to Kochi city, is playing a crucial role in aiding relief work for Aluva’s several camps.
Apart from relief workers relying on the metro to reach relief camps close to the Aluva metro station easily, the system is also functioning as a crucial means of sending relief material to the camps set up in the area.
“A few of us have got together to help with loading and unloading boxes filled with relief material at various metro stations,” said Shibu C. L., an employee at a printing shop near the Aluva metro station who has been put out of work since the shop has been flooded completely.
Shibu and his friends have been using the metro services several times a day to ensure that relief materials — that come in plastic packets and cardboard boxes — are loaded and unloaded without trouble. On August 17, what began as just two boxes of clothes and food from Maharaja’s College station swelled to more than 50 boxes by the time the metro reached Aluva station, he said.
“A lot of people are helping out with this,” said Shibu.
Volunteers at the several relief camps set up at the Union Christian College campus in Aluva also acknowledged the role of the metro in easing relief work.
“Non-governmental organisations such as Soles of Cochin and Anbodu Kochi are sending us a lot of relief material through the metro,” said Santhosh Thayyil, a resident of Aluva who has been volunteering at one of the camps. Meanwhile, another team was overheard speaking about what to do when these tough times have passed: “We have dirtied the metro stations and trains. We have to make sure we clean them once this is over.”
