Over seven months after the demolition of five apartment buildings in Kochi’s Maradu, tonnes of debris which had fallen off to the Vembanad backwaters during the demolition of one of the high rises, is finally being removed following the protest by people and local fishers in the region.
The debris from one of the twin towers of Alfa Serene apartment, which was demolished on January 11, had landed in large quantities to the adjacent Vembanad lake. The debris extending till midway of the water body had been posing difficulties to the local fishermen.
Aluva based Prompt Enterprises, has the contract of removing debris from all the four razed down apartment complexes.
“The depth of the river had reduced drastically in this part, there is only knee deep water. The fishermen were finding it very difficult and had been raising protests,” said Harichandra Sai, who lives near the spot.
A protest march was also recently carried out by the Congress to the Maradu municipality. “It is only after that, three days back, the contractors started to remove the debris from the water body. They have created a temporary bund to enable the earth movers to remove the scrap,” Maradu municipality chairperson TH Nadeera told TNM. She also added that it would take a few days to completely remove debris from the Vembanad Lake.
In the month of January, four apartment complexes -- Jains Coral Cove, Golden Kayaloram, H2O Holy Faith and the twin towers of Alfa Serene -- in Maradu,a suburb of Kochi city, were razed down following a Supreme Court order for being built violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules. The event also witnessed the painful eviction of over 300 families who, had mostly, brought the apartments without knowing that it was built in violation of the CRZ rules.
The demolition of the high rises had garnered wide attention as reportedly, it was the first time in India such multiple demolition of high rises happened.
While the Holy Faith and Alfa Serene apartments were razed down on January 11, the other two Golden Kayaloram and Jains Coral Cove, was demolished the next day. According to local body officials, debris removal from these spots is in the final stage.
Watch demolition of the apartment complexes: