The much hyped storm water drainage system set up in Kozhikode over a year ago seems to have had little effect, going by the flooding witnessed in the heart of the city, following heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday. Mavoor Road and Stadium Junction, two main points where storm water drains were set up, were left inundated in the rain.

Traffic hit

Traffic was disrupted across the city due to heavy rain and flooding. People were seen wading through water overflowing from drains.

The Rs. 15-crore storm water drain project was expected solve the constant waterlogging in the heart of the city.

Waterlogging in the mofussil bus stand junction has always been a headache for the Kozhikode Corporation and the traffic police for decades. The storm water drain project was executed specifically to solve this problem.

The 50-year-old drainage system in the city was unable to handle the volume of water during the monsoon. New pipelines, designed in consultation with the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, with enough capacity to accommodate the water, were laid under the roads as part of the project.

Road work

It took the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) almost two years to dig up half of Mavoor Road and several other roads in the city to implant pipes that could carry the rainwater straight to Connolly Canal. The junction was partially blocked in April 2016 for almost a month to construct the connection between the separate pipelines.

The drainage system has been connected to the existing drain under the Nayanar Flyover so that water could be discharged into the Connolly Canal near Arayadathupalam.

Work on the storm water drain was completed by the end of 2016, but parts of the city continued to be flooded, during the onset of monsoon in June.

Mayor Thottathil Raveendran had clarified at the time that the corporation was in the process of clearing the silt from the drains and that it would be opened into the Connolly Canal the next day. “Soon the drain will be functional and there will be no more waterlogging on Mavoor Road,” the Mayor had said.

However, the situation continues to be the same three months later.

The State government has, on Thursday, issued orders amending the GHMC Rules, 2010, pertaining to the constitution, conduct of meetings, powers and functions of ward committees and area sabhas, in a bid to strengthen the area sabhas.

As per the orders, 10 civil society members would be nominated to the area sabhas apart from the representative, five of whom should be woman voters from the ward. President or secretary of registered resident welfare association of the area, president or secretary of the slum-level federation of a slum from the area, or in absence of such federation, representative from the senior self-help group in the area, member of registered association or institution, body, organisation, mahila mandali, trade union or chamber of commerce, and self-employed person such as auto driver, hamali, street vendor, carpenter, electrician or plumber should be among the members.