Plans that went wrong

KOCHI: Had Kochi Corporation completed the sewerage treatment plants which it had planned in association with various agencies, half of the health problems in the city could have been avoided.Despite the abundance of funds, the civic body could not take any measures to execute the plans to set up sewerage treatment plants at Elamkulam and West Kochi.As of now, there is a sewerage treatment plant in Elamkulam. But the plant inaugurated by President R Rajendraprasad is defunct now. Lack of proper infrastructure to collect the sewerage from the households, offices and shops is the major shortcoming.The Kerala Water Authority is the implementing agency for the project. A couple of years ago, the civic body had come up with a proposal to renovate and augment the plant under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of Rs 74 crore.“Land acquisition is the main hurdle before the project,” said Girija Devi, project manager, JNNURM. Owing to the delay in executing the project, the cost escalated. “After the cost escalated to Rs117 crore, we submitted a revised detailed project report (DPR) to the head office of the JNNURM in Delhi. And we are yet to get the approval from them,” said Mathew Joseph, project coordinator, JNNURM, KWA.Another plant was planned in West Kochi. “We had completed all the procedures, including land acquisition to build the plant. We had even started distribution of compensation for those who had surrendered their land to set up 10 pumping stations,” said former deputy mayor C K Manisankar.When the Corporation started filling the marhsy land, environmentalists opposed it resulting in the stoppage of land filling.  The capacity of the plants in West Kochi and Elamkulam is 25 mld each. There were also plans to start two more plants at Vaduthala and Kakkanad. But JNNURM will give sanction for the new ones only after the completion of the existing projects.