The Kochi Corporation has directed the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) to take urgent steps to temporarily restore parts of the Kathrikadavu-Thammanam Road that were trenched over a week ago to lay water pipelines, in the wake of accidents being reported in improperly-filled areas.
Mayor M. Anilkumar said that the KWA is duty-bound to temporarily restore the stretch. “With accidents being reported during the past few days, I instructed Kochi Corporation’s executive engineer to take this up with KWA and to restore the trenches as per the agreement reached by the two agencies. The KWA (which is executing AMRUT’s water pipeline project) had agreed to complete the work in a week,” he said.
The level difference between the road and the trenched portion was causing accidents, especially at the junction where Azad Road meets Kathrikadavu-Thammanam Road and at the junction immediately after that, said Aashin U.S., an entrepreneur, who resides in an apartment beside the narrow but busy road.
“I was witness to one such accident as I was driving along the stretch on Monday, in which a cargo autorickshaw was trapped in the trenched portion. About a dozen of us helped pull out the vehicle from the area. The improperly restored road also caused multiple accidents, mostly involving two-wheelers during the past two days. The KWA has failed to ensure that its contractor restored the road back to use by motorists and pedestrians. The police also sounded helpless when they were informed of the situation,” he said. The PWD (Roads wing), which intends to widen the Thammanam-Pullepady Road and to extend it to MG Road and NH Bypass, has not yet taken over the road from Kochi Corporation.