P&T apartment residents stage protest over stalled works

Residents of P&T Apartment Complex at Mundamveli staged a protest march on Saturday evening to the house of the contractor engaged for various ongoing works, which have reportedly remained suspended since the notification of the local body polls.

Works, including drainage, compound wall construction, overhead roofing, landscaping, and earth-filling, have yet to resume even after the lifting of the Model Code of Conduct. The protest march was organised under the aegis of P&T Apartment Association.

“Not only have the works not resumed, but excavated soil remains dumped over the septic tank, preventing the removal of blockages. Since the contractor was neither available nor reachable by phone, the Thoppumpady police contacted the division engineer attached to the Fort Kochi zonal office of the Kochi Corporation, who informed them that the contractor had backed out of the works,” said Abhilash P. Parameswaran, president of the association.

The works are being funded with ₹1.19 crore from the asset development fund of the Kochi MLA and an additional ₹50 lakh allocated by the Kochi Corporation. Mr. Parameswaran questioned how the contractor could withdraw arbitrarily. “The police said the engineer had agreed to bear the expenses of removing the soil from over the septic tank. We expect more clarity on the matter of the works on Monday,” he added.

Seventy-seven families from the erstwhile P&T Colony, located on the banks of the Perandoor canal near Kadavanthra, were relocated to the apartments built by the Greater Cochin Development Authority in January 2024. However, the apartments began leaking during the first showers, much to the dismay of the residents.

Earlier this year, the State government, after considerable delay, had appointed IIT Madras as consultant to detect structural and design flaws and recommend solutions for the apartment complex. Incidentally, Mr. Parameswaran contested from the Mundamveli East division of the Corporation to draw attention to the plight of the apartment residents.