Since August last year, it has been ‘standing tall and high’ in front
of the City Corporation office. Proudly under the shade of an entrance
in Kerala model architecture standing taller than it. It is about the
platinum jubilee memorial gate of the Corporation that is being said
here.

 After lagging for nearly two years, the work of the gate
was finally completed last year. When the work was over, the authorities
promised to open it within a few weeks. Still, the gate was destined to
wait for long, and now the Corporation authorities are planning to
throw it open hopefully by June 15 along with the inauguration of the
facilitation centre, the work of which is almost over. The gate and the
huge entrance were completed by spending Rs 7.55 lakh.

 Initially,
the obstruction posed by the long hand rails along the footpath outside
the gate was cited to be one of the reasons for the delay in opening
the gate. However, the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) removed them
without  much delay. Still, the gate did not open. So then, the opening
of the gate and inauguration of the facilitation centre were planned
together. Yet, the construction of the facilitation centre too happened
at a slow pace. Again, uncertainty prevailed over the opening of the
gate.

 There were also plans to create enough parking space near
the facilitation centre, to reduce the size of the pond in front of the
office and for the smooth flow of traffic and to close the present
entrance gate to facilitate parking. However, “now the plan is to create
separate parking lots for two-wheelers and four-wheelers,” said V S
Padmakumar, Works Standing Committee Chairman of the Corporation.

 The work of the gate was started during the tenure of the previous council when C Jayan Babu was the Mayor.