THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A high-level meeting convened by chief secretary Jiji Thomson on Monday decided to develop more water bodies in Thampanoor and East Fort to address the recurring flooding in these regions.
The meet also decided to convert Manjalikulam into a tourist spot. The plan is to introduce boating in the pond and convert the rest of the area into a joggers’ park.
The chief secretary has decided to direct the city corporation to develop a water body at Putharikandam Maidan to avoid flooding in East Fort.
Manjalikulam pond will be restored to its original site and a new tank would be created at Ponnara park to contain storm water.
The meeting was convened to review the progress of the eviction drive launched by the collector to clear the encroachments over the age-old drain at East Fort – Karimadom colony region.
Jiji Thomson told DC that the civic authorities would be directed to construct a new pond at Putharikandam Maidan.
“We have decided to put on hold our decision to reconstruct the age-old drain. Even if we launch the construction, we will not be able to finish it before monsoon. So the best way would be to launch the work post-monsoon. Now our focus will be to clean up the pond. Clearing debris and demolition is taking more time than expected,” said Mr Thomson.
The team led by collector Biju Prabhakar was able to clear up around 500 metres of the drain in the past two days.
Sub-collector Karthikeyan said that almost all of the illegal structures over the drain at Karimadom colony had been removed. The eviction continued at Karimadom for the third day.
“Some of the constructions which we removed were made around 60 years back. Now we are not planning to remove all encroachments. We want to construct a three-metre wide canal so cleaning can be done regularly,” said the official.
