Kochi Corporation moots Chilavannur lake rejuvenation project

The Kochi Corporation is considering a project to give a facelift to Chilavannur lake.

The Kochi Corporation is considering a project to give a facelift to Chilavannur lake.

The civic body has proposed to clean up the lake and protect it by constructing retaining walls. The Corporation has mooted a ₹3.5-crore Chilavannur canal rejuvenation project for approval under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme.

The idea is to improve the condition of the canal, which is located between Sahodaran Ayyappan Road and Subhash Bose Road. The canal will be cleaned, de-silted, and side walls constructed. The flow of the canal near the sewage treatment plant at Elamkulam will also be rejuvenated, according to the draft proposal mooted by the civic body.

The rejuvenation proposal has to be first cleared by the State-level empowered committee. The Mission needs to approve it for funding. The Corporation will prepare a detailed project report for the rejuvenation programme once it is cleared by the Mission authorities, officials said.

Incidentally, a few projects that were initiated by the Corporation earlier had run into trouble. A project to develop a cycle track and walkway across the lake was dropped after the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority denied the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance for it. The civic body had initiated the project without obtaining prior permission from the authority. Prior permission was required as the area fell under the CRZ regime. A temporary bund that was constructed in the lake also had to be demolished. The Corporation had also incurred financial loss after the projects were scrapped.

Incidentally, a large number of encroachments were reported in the canal region earlier. Reclamations were reported to have taken place in the intertidal zone of the canal, which included mudflats on the banks of backwaters and mangroves. As many as 40 reclamations had been identified in the Elamkulam-Chilavannoor sector.