Kerala - Alappuzha   

Chandy to launch Phase 2 tomorrow

By Our Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA, MARCH. 3. Canals of Alappuzha, the pride of the town that became a curse as they degenerated into garbage pits, are poised to get a new lease of life following efforts of the State Government to clean and beautify them.

The Rs.-33 crore project of the Government aims at rejuvenating the canals and making them an attraction to the large number of tourists who arrive in the town.

The first phase of the project launched a year ago has been completed.

The canals were weeded and their depth was increased in some parts in this phase. An amount of Rs. 1.08 crore was spent for cleaning.

Second phase

The Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, will inaugurate the second phase of the project at a function here on Saturday. The estimated cost of the second phase is Rs. 5 crores. Of this, the Tourism Department will provide Rs. 4 crores and the Irrigation Department Rs. 1 crore. The sidewalls of the canals will be strengthened and their banks modified.

Two centuries old

The canals were built more than two centuries ago by the builder of modern Alappuzha town and the Diwan of erstwhile Travancore, Raja Kesava Das. There are two main canals — Commercial Canal and Vadai Canal — running through the heart of the town. The canals which ended at the sea then provided the traders of the town easy access to the Alappuzha port which was then flourishing.

Later, the functioning of port stopped with the rise of Kochi port in the Sixties. Following this, the canals became out of use.

The sides of the canals were later encroached upon. The main canals have been levelled and encroached at its meeting point with the sea. At present, the canals are not connected to the sea.

As part of the present canal revival project, a channel is being made to connect the canals with the sea and ensure flow of water through them. The channel would be equipped with a shutter system to close it during high tides.

Though cleaning and beautification of the canals had been attempted several times in the past, all those efforts ended in fiascos. The main reason was that those projects did not try to ensure the flow of water through the canal. But the present project had rectified that fault.

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Chandy to launch Phase 2 tomorrow

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