THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation has locked horns with the Railway authorities over the cleanup of the Kochuveli Railway Station and its premises. The Indian Railway’s have said a strict no to the service of the city corporation sanitation workers at the Kochuveli station, which has turned into a dumping yard, claiming that they will take care of their mess.
This irked the civic body prompting it to slap notice on the railway authorities demanding the immediate cleanup of accumulated non-biodegradable and solid waste in the station premises, which could pose a serious health threat to the public.
According to civic authorities, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has banned the entry of corporation sanitation workers inside its premises for disposing of accumulated waste.
“The area is fast becoming a turnoff because of the foul smell emanating from the accumulated waste. We have raised the issue many a time but they are not cooperating,” said an official.
However, the Railway authorities claimed that the civic body wants to use their land for disposing of waste. Earlier, the Railways have filed a case against the corporation for destroying their underground signal cables while trying to bury waste using JCB.
“It took three or four days to reinstate the signal systems. Several trains were delayed because of this. We cannot let that happen again,” said the official. Earlier there were agencies that used to haul out waste from our premises. “We couldn’t renew the contract with them. The process is underway to set up our own facilities for disposing of plastic and solid waste,” said a railway official.
