Technical hitches delay bus terminal project

KOCHI: The bus terminal at Kakkanad will remain a distant dream as the government has not given  permission for the proposal to carry it forward. Though the Thrikkakara municipality officials said that the government had rejected the proposal, they could not give the exact reason as to why a project like this one was rejected.  The proposal was earlier submitted by the erstwhile Thrikkakara panchayat. Radhakrishnan, municipality engineer, said: “The proposal has been rejected. We do not know the exact reason. The proposal was submitted by the former Thrikkakara panchayat president.  The area, near to the Thrikkakara municipality, the district panchayat and the Civil Station was the proposed site for the bus terminal. But this place has been used for dumping garbage for the past seven years.  Thrikkakara municipality chairman P I Muhammad Ali said: “The government rejected the proposal citing that there is no ample space to build a bus terminal there.” But, Sabitha Kareem, who was the-then panchayat president, refutes this. “We had submitted the proposal after taking all the constraints into account. The project was accepted by the Planning Board. But there was a slight difficulty as there were some legal hassles in allotting the required land by the Revenue Department,” she said.   The ambiguity still continues as the Thrikkakara municipality authorities still do not know what to do with the proposed site. “We are planning to submit a proposal for a full-fledged bus terminal, along with a shopping complex  built at par with international standards,” said Rajendran, municipal engineer. “The proposed site was lying deserted for the past seven years. So far, no substantial measures have been taken by the authorities for the scientific treatment of the garbage dumped at the site. Nothing has been done by the authorities other than digging a large pit to bury the waste, said a Kudumbasree worker who works at the site. “The biodegradable waste, after being segregated from the non-biodegradable, is dumped into the pit. But the plastic materials are still strewn all around the area as there is no facility to remove it and treat it. “These include used napkins too,” she said.  A plastic shed which has been built to house the machine for shredding the plastic is lying vacant.