KOCHI: Open drains and wobbly footpaths continue to mar the recently inaugurated Edappally-High Court Road and the Sahodaran Ayyappan (SA) Road. “The slab laying work on the SA road is almost completed. A small strip was left because the concerned contractor had stopped the work as the time given to him lapsed owing to some problems related to a transformer and also due to the rains. He has been asked to resume the work now,” said Soumini Jain, chairperson of the Works Standing Committee, Kochi Corporation. As of now, a large portion of the drains running alongside the SA Road remain open and clogged.On the other hand, the footpaths along the Edappally-High Court Road are in a deplorable condition. While slabs are missing along most of the places, the existing ones are wobbly and broken. Meanwhile, authorities have been passing the buck as to who is responsible for the maintenance and repair works on the footpath along the road. Although, the repair work on the Public Works Department (PWD)-owned road was taken up by the Kochi Corporation which was to use funds under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) earlier last year, the Corporation officials maintained that the project did not include the repair works on the footpaths. “Only the surfacing works on the road was assigned to us. Even then, we had placed handrails along the footpaths using the excess funds. Since the road belongs to the PWD, they are responsible for the upkeep of the footpaths,” said Soumini. However, PWD officials stated that it was the Corporation’s duty since the maintenance work on the road was handed over to them. “The PWD had handed over the road to the Corporation to conduct repair and maintenance works under the KSUDP. Hence, it is up to them to repair the footpaths too,” said T I Jose, executive engineer, PWD.
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