Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Slum regeneration work progressing

Photo: S. Gopakumar

Foundations: The reconstruction of the Karimadom colony on. —

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The foundation work on the two buildings being constructed in the first phase of slum regeneration work taken up by the City Corporation at the Karimadom Colony is nearing completion.

Project officials said the foundation work would be completed in a week, after which the construction of the superstructure would begin. The Centre for Science and Technology for Rural Development (Costford), the project implementing agency, would engage labourers from the colony for the work.

“By next week, we expect to start the brick work on the first two buildings of the project. We are not being able to simultaneously start the works on the third and fourth buildings, also included in the first phase, because of lack of space for storing materials,” a project official said.

More than 27 families at the Karimadom colony have been rehabilitated for the work on the first phase of the project. While nine families have been rehabilitated in the colony community centre, others have moved to houses of relatives.

“The nine families rehabilitated in the community centre have been given separate spaces with inner partition. They also have separate kitchens. We have also arranged electricity connection to these families,” said Corporation welfare standing committee chairman S.A. Sundar.

Four buildings housing 80 flats are being constructed in nine months in the first phase of the slum modernisation project which began in March under the Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) programme. The Rs.16.02-crore project includes construction of 560 flats in 9.73 acres.

Work on the first phase of the project had been delayed following a demand for changes in the structural design of the buildings. The LBS Centre for Science and Technology, after structural scrutiny of the project design, proposed a column structure design, in place of the load-bearing structure as in the original design, with an 8.5 m Direct Mud Circulation pile foundation for the buildings. It also proposed an increase in the number of piles towards the centre portion of the building. According to project officials, the structural changes would cost the Corporation an additional expense of Rs.32 lakh.

Meanwhile, construction works on residential buildings under the BSUP programme at the Rajiv Nagar Colony and the Kannammoola Bund Colony were also completing piling stage. The regeneration of the Rajiv Nagar Colony included construction of 67 individual houses and 30 apartment blocks, besides renovation of 103 houses. At the Bund Colony, 115 flats would be constructed.

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