Measures sought to restore Marine Drive to its past glory

Confronted with depleting public areas and distributors encroaching into most of the not too long ago redeveloped footpaths within the metropolis and in West Kochi, individuals’s representatives, NGOs and others have sought the appointment of a nodal officer to coordinate with civic businesses and different departments to make sure the maintenance of the ill-maintained Marine Drive walkway.

Though the Higher Cochin Improvement Authority (GCDA)-owned stretch that overlooks the backwaters had been redeveloped by Cochi Good Mission Restricted (CSML) underneath a ₹7.30-crore challenge, insufficient upkeep has taken a toll, they are saying.

Excessive Court docket order

Primarily based on a Kerala Excessive Court docket order, a nodal officer must have been appointed and his contact particulars like phone quantity and e-mail handle printed, stated environmental activist Ranjit Thampy, who can be a daily walker alongside Marine Drive. He had earlier this yr shot off a letter to the Chief Secretary, citing a Excessive Court docket directive that the secretaries involved of the GCDA, Kochi Company, Kerala State Air pollution Management Board and the District Police Chief (Kochi Metropolis) maintain a joint assembly inside 4 weeks to formulate a ‘Kochi Marine Drive Monitoring Committee’ consisting of senior officers of the departments, to make sure maintenance of the walkway, lights, crops and different infrastructure. Though a committee was fashioned, a nodal officer has not been appointed.

In Might, he despatched a letter to the then District Collector, referring to the alleged low-quality supplies that have been used to construct a bathroom complicated. As a result of this, tiles have been falling off. Two bathrooms that have been constructed on the Abdul Kalam Marg (the walkway’s northward extension) are in a dilapidated situation and stay locked. As well as, two constructions in the course of the Kettuvallom Bridge have to be demolished since they’ve turn into a den for anti-social components and drug addicts. Consideration should even be given to activate all CCTVs on the walkway to discourage such individuals and stop waste dumping into the mangroves and the backwaters, he added.

Common walkers too have been highlighting the chance that undulated and damaged tiles pose to the protection of tourists to the walkway. They’ve been in search of frequent cleansing utilizing jet pump to wash fowl droppings and filth from the walkway. A waste administration plan, deployment of personnel at police support posts and steps to prune the branches of bushes to stop cases of bushes getting uprooted in heavy winds have been their different calls for.

Within the meantime, Ernakulam MLA T.J. Vinod has demanded that the federal government and the Kochi Company do a rethink on rehabilitating distributors from completely different components of town on footpaths that the CSML redeveloped on the Shanmukham Street-Goshree Bridge stretch, from which individuals enter Marine Drive at a number of factors. “It could be extremely improper to transform the stretch as a merchandising zone. This is able to make your entire space an eyesore and in addition have an effect on merchants who pay large hire and taxes for his or her outlets,” he stated.

He additionally demanded enough variety of bathrooms and rubbish bins alongside the Marine Drive walkway and in addition steps to take care of the walkway in optimum situation.

Aside from guests to the walkway, commuters to the Goshree islands have for the previous a few years been complaining of how distributors promoting fruits and different gadgets have encroached on appreciable area of the redeveloped footpaths.

Entry charge

Sources within the GCDA hoped that the newly appointed District Collector would take steps to nominate a nodal officer to revive Marine Drive to its authentic glory.

“Though there are calls for to impose an entry charge to the scenic walkway, this might dissuade individuals from visiting the locale. Efforts by the GCDA to tidy the premises and to make sure inexperienced cowl by planting saplings are being thwarted by anti-social components who usually uproot them and trigger harm to water sprinklers.”

Nevertheless, ex-service personnel have been posted to step up safety on the walkway. “The realm that was conceived as an eatery beneath the Kettuvallom Bridge can’t be reopened since it’s robust to take care of it,” they added.