Date:19/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/19/stories/2008111959790300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Corporation, PWD yet to spruce up the city

Staff Reporter

Kochi awaiting arrival of Volvo Race boats

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

AN EYESORE: The Venduruthy bridge-Vathuruthy Road, part of NH 47, is in a pathetic shape. Both the Cochin Port Trust and the PWD have disowned the road, saying the other agency has to repair it.

KOCHI: The city is getting ready to welcome the Volvo Race and the Cochin Port Trust, the prime mover in this venture is upbeat about the forthcoming event.

However, there are some hitches like lack of enthusiasm from the civic authorities but these things would be sorted out after due consultations, the authorities say.

The Public Works Department and the Corporation of Cochin are yet to throw their full weight behind the initiatives by the Port Trust to make the Volvo Race stopover a big success.

Progress needs to be made in ensuring better motorable roads and the cleanliness of the city since this is a prestigious event when hundreds of guests would be descending to Kochi in early December to catch a glimpse of the Kochi stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Cochin Port Trust and Kerala Tourism – prominent among the agencies that are readying facilities for the stopover, had conveyed to the Corporation and the PWD the need to maintain public utilities like roads, footpaths, drains, medians, street lights, comfort stations etc., in proper condition.

The Corporation has not even taken steps to clear garbage from the streets, while many portions in the arterial Chitoor Road, SA Road and most side roads are unmotorable.

There is confusion about which agency would repair the badly-damaged road leading from the Venduruthy bridge to Vathuruthy, which passes through the entrance to the Naval Base and connects the island and West Kochi with the city.

Both the port and the PWD have disowned the road. Chairman of the Cochin Port Trust N. Ramachandran said that the stretch is not under the port’s administrative control and was handed over to the PWD a few years ago. The PWD says that the agency has not formally taken over the road.

Puma ahead in race

Meanwhile, a communication said here that Puma was slightly ahead of the rest of fleet in the third day of the Volvo Ocean Race Leg-2 between Cape Town and Kochi.

Telefonica Blue is in the second position and Telefonica Black is in the third position. Erricson 3, Erricson 4, Green Dragon, Delta Lloyd and Team Russia is the fleet order now.