Container Road turning into dump yard

KOCHI: Encroachment and dumping of construction waste are becoming rampant   on the island-side of the road connecting Kalamassery to the International Container Transshipment Terminal Vallarpadam (container road). Sandwiched between the backwaters and islands, waste dumping is posing  a threat to the existence of water bodies and vegetation, which include mangrove forests.Though the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has put up a board  asking not to dump construction waste in the area, waste dumping continues without fail. Apparently, there is a heap of waste just below the board.According to NHAI officials, a major portion of the waste is actually the remains of Ernakulam North Railway overbridge which is being demolished and reconstructed for the proposed Metro Rail project."Following our repeated requests, the Kochi   Metro Rail authorities have demolished some of the big structures into small pieces. Earlier, big structures with steel pieces projecting from them had been posing a major threat to the vehicles passing through the road. However, our demand to stop dumping of the construction waste has not been considered,” said NHAI project director C T Abraham.Environment clearance for the the four-lane road connecting the ICTT to the highway at Kalamassery was granted on the condition that the water bodies and vegetation between the road and island should be preserved.With waste dumping becoming rampant, the water bodies and marshy land in  between the road and island have been reclaimed at many places. The  reclaimed portion has been encroached by the local people.“Those dumping waste are in fact facilitating people to encroach on the land. Around Rs 100 crore has already been spent for reclaiming the land and constructing the road,” Abraham said.The Cochin Port Trust authorities have alleged that encroachment by reclaiming is rampant, especially in Mulavukad Panchayat.Top officials of the Port Trust suspect encroachers have the backing of the real estate mafia as the land price is skyrocketing. “As far as the ICTT is concerned, though there was an under performance in the first year, it is certain that it will soon emerge as a transshipment terminal. With ICTT finding a prominent place in the global maritime map, the land price is  expected to skyrocket,” said an official.