THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was nearly a week back that Larsen and Toubro (L&T), one among the contractors of the Thiruvananthapuram phase of the Japan International Corporation Agency-aided water supply project, came out with an appeal before the public of the Powdikkonam area to enable them finish the JICA-related work there.L&T had placed a flex board along the roadside in this area on August 11 seeking the support of the public to plug a leak on the pipeline between Powdikkonam and Puthukkunnu."We implore the public, political parties and officials to cooperate with the work,’’ the contractor had announced on the flex board.The first-of-its-kind modus operandi didn’t go in vain, it seems. The repair work will start at the spot on Saturday. And the best part is that L&T has placed another small board close to the old one promising that the leak would be plugged at the earliest and the road will be restored.When contacted, an official with L&T said, “We hope the message has reached out to the people. Even after placing the second board announcing the commencement of the work, nobody came out in protest, which means they want to cooperate. The work would be carried out only at night and would be finished by afternoon the next day.”Once the leak is plugged, the drinking water woes of Powdikkonam and Mannanthala areas can be solved.As part of the project, two reservoirs have been constructed at Puthukunnu near Powdikkonam and pipelines were laid spending crores. The pump house got ready, inside Powdikkonam market, nearly a year back. But when the contractor charged the line, a leak was detected. And each time the employees turned up to plug the leak, the public stopped them.At least four meetings were held in this connection, involving officials of the Kerala Water Authority, JICA and the Corporation and it was even brought to the notice of the District Collector.When nothing happened, the flex board was placed to expedite the project. And it had come to light that the public were in fact protesting against the neglect on the part of politicians and various other departments towards this area, especially about the condition of the roads here.After placing the flex board, though nothing concrete had happened, it sent the right message to the people, the JICA officials believe."It was indeed a good method adopted by the contractor to take the people into confidence. And now they have placed another board promising to finish the work on time. Don’t be surprised if, in future, others also follow the same method to finish pending works,” a JICA official said.
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