Time limit set to fix boundary of T.S. Canal

District Collector gives department 18 days to lay boundary stones

The Inland Navigation and Survey Department has been given 18 more days by District Collector S. Venkatesapathy to demarcate the boundary and lay boundary stones of the 60-km stretch of the Thiruvananthapuram-Shoranur (TS) canal commencing from Kovalam.

The survey on the 32-km Thiruvananthapuram sub-division is to be completed by March 15 and the survey on the remaining 28 km in the Chirayinkeezhu and Varkala taluks will begin on March 16. Three survey teams had already been deputed to complete the work by March 31.

Sketch to be prepared

A meeting chaired by the District Collector here on Monday to review the work also decided to prepare a sketch of the wide and narrow stretches of T.S. Canal. In the narrow stretches, it was decided to measure the land. A survey on the 26.77 km of the stretch had found 1,300 encroachments.

Once a prime channel for trade and transport, the waterway is now out of bounds for transportation owing to rampant encroachment, waste discharge, and poor maintenance.

V.R. Vinod, Deputy Collector, Land Revenue, had been asked by the District Collector to coordinate the survey and laying of the boundary stones along T.S. Canal.

The district administration was asked by the Chief Minister in September last to undertake the survey of T.S. Canal from Veli to Varkala and to fix the boundary and lay the boundary stones.

The administration has also been asked to submit a report of the homeless and landless who have to be rehabilitated.