THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid heavy summer downpour, thunder and lightning, huge trees on the city roads come crashing. Compared to previous years, this time firefighters' hands are full, with old trees falling at different locations. It was when Cyclone Ockhi had hit last November which saw heavy rain accompanied by strong winds in the city and suburbs. But now huge trees are falling, resulting in a power outage at a couple of places from broken wires.
On Tuesday, a huge tree was uprooted at Jawahar Nagar. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but the power supply got disrupted for a long duration. Firefighters were called in to cut away the fallen trees and to restore traffic. “Unlike the previous years, this time there have been lots of instances where trees are falling. Fortunately, we are not short of staff, and we reach the spot wherever traffic disrupts due to trees crashing,” said M. Naushad, the divisional fire and rescue service officer.
On Saturday, traffic on Vazhuthacaud – Vellayambalam stretch was disrupted in the afternoon when authorities at the KELTRON decided to prune the tree in their compound posing a threat to the passersby. Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company, the concessionaire of Kerala Road Fund Board that takes care of the city roads, has been pruning trees that pose threats to motorists and pedestrians.
“We have been periodically pruning branches of the trees on the 42-km city roads under the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) five or more times a year. Hence, so far none of the trees belonging to CRIP have played spoilsport”, TRDCL project director Anil Kumar Pandala told Deccan Chronicle.
