Jawahar Nagar facing isolation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city’s high profile residential area Jawahar Nagar is witnessing one among the major drainage works being undertaken by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA). The work has started right at the main entrance of Jawahar Nagar and no traffic is being allowed along the route. The residents of the area are now depending on narrow byroads - Jawahar Lane, which connects it to Vellayambalam, and the one near Pippinmoodu - for travelling. The bad news is that it will take at least a month for the work to get over. While the public is fuming over the fact that the commencement of the work was not announced earlier, the officials are of the opinion that the permission had been sought long back. A hugely choked drainage line coming from near the Kowdiar Palace is the root of the problem. “This issue is nearly a year old. Everytime there was an overflow of the sewage, we used to remove the waste using a sucking machine,” an official said.But things got worse when this drainage line got burst near the District Collector’s camp office recently when the piling work of a new building was being done. The manhole on the compound of a top official got filled to the brim and waste started overflowing, producing foul smell. When complaints were registered, there was no other way out other than laying a new line, an official said.The work is posing tremendous difficulties for the residents. Since the road is closed for traffic, school buses won’t be coming inside and parents will have to take their wards to the main road. “No announcement was made prior to the work,” an angry parent complained. The area houses the residences of many top bureaucrats, in addition to a number of apartments, houses, private establishments, offices and other establishments, which means vehicular traffic is always high along this route. Now, the vehicles are all being diverted to the narrow byroads, especially the Jawahar Lane.The problem with the work is that the drainage line is lying at much depth, in some areas it is nearly 6.5 m deep. “Which means that a lot of soil has to be removed to take it out. This soil has to be laid on both sides of the road, which is not very wide. And so we will have to block the traffic. There will be enough space for only a two-wheeler to move,” a labourer pointed out. Also, they have to deal with two drinking water pipelines laid on both sides of the road, a 6-inch AC line and 4-inch Cast Iron line. In addition, electric cables are also laid underneath. “These underground utilities are coming in the way of our work. The rains are also posing enough difficulties,” said a labourer. A new drainage line - 250 mm stone wire line - has to be laid, covering nearly 220 m. “The work includes the construction of nine manholes. We have already made two,” said a labourer on Sunday. An official pointed out that the work is being undertaken at a fast pace so that a major portion of the work is finished in the next 15 days.

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