Normal life was thrown out of gear as incessant rains lashed over Kochi city and its outskirts for most part of the day on Monday. Kochi Corporation’s failure to carry out pre-monsoon cleaning of major canals resulted in low-lying areas getting inundated.
Ernakulam Junction railway station, KSRTC bus station, MG Road, Banerjee Road, Broadway Road, Judges Avenue, Edapally Toll, Gandhi Square, Statue Jn, AD Puram and South Moolamkuzhy among others got water-logged since morning itself. Traffic movement through city roads was hit from 8am onwards, with pedestrians suffering the most clogged with drainages overflowing on to the street.
Incidents of people getting fallen into overflowing drainages were reported from places like Edapally Toll bus stop. Shops on Broadway and VP Marackkar Road (Edapally) as well as SRV Public School and residential colonies in Pullepady were inundated on Monday. “The city faced the water-logging issue like never before. This is due to the laxity of Kochi Corporation authorities in conducting timely cleaning of major canals,”said V P Chandran, LDF Parliamentary Party Secretary, Kochi Corporation.
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“Usually tender proceedings are completed by December and the cleaning works by March. This time, even the tender process are yet to be finalised,” he alleged. Cleaning works of major canals like Thevara-Perandoor, Mullassery, Changadam Pokku Thode, Karanamkodam Thode, Market Thode, Kaniampuzha Thode and Kalvatti-Rameshwaram canal are pending and only that with regard to small drainages were completed this time around, sources said. Commuters who arrived at the main entrance of Ernakulam South railway station were stranded as autorickshaws and taxis refused to pick up passengers citing the flooded roads leading to the station.
“We got a call from the cops asking to send some buses to pick stranded passengers from the railways station. We sent three buses including Ernakulam –Muvattupuzha schedule via the railway station 9.30 am,” said a KSRTC official. The KSRTC bus station itself was water-logged and commuters were seen waiting for the buses at the road leading to the bus station. Among the affected include KSRTC MD M G Rajamanickam who paid a surprise visit to the depot.
“The issue was discussed and the main problem was found to be the stoppage of waste flow through the canal after it got blocked with wastes and plastic bottles. Even the Station Master’s room got water-logged,” the official said. “Severe traffic jam was witnessed due to water-logging of areas like Mamangalam and Edapally Toll. The issue resulted in some vehicles developing technical glitches and that added to the woes. However, no untoward incident has so far been reported,” said A.J. George, Traffic ACP Ernakulam East.
