Pangode fish market waits for PWD nod

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The renovation of the Pangode fish market, which was inaugurated in August 2010 when C Jayan Babu was the Mayor, is still in progress. The latest of the many snags that the project at Edappazhanji had to face was a delay in getting technical sanction from the PWD Electrical Wing. The Corporation does not have electrical engineers to take care of its projects, and therefore has to rely on the PWD Electrical Wing.

PWD Chief Electrical Engineer Sasikumar T says, “Our hands are full with various other works that the PWD handles. So, when an LSGD project comes along, we are unable to work on it immediately. In addition, the Pangode fish market was a complicated project, with a walk-in freezer. There was a delay from the Corporation in supplying the correct technical details.”

Before that, the project faced a delay in getting approvals on the revised estimate, according to an official at the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), the agency entrusted with the construction. “Work had to be stopped for 1.5 years. Even after getting a sanction on revised estimates, we did not tile the walls, because we were waiting for the electrical wiring to be completed,” the official says.

Finally, CED decided to go ahead with the tiling and has suggested exposed wiring. The wiring should be done 1.5 m above the floor level, said the official. When completed, the market will have a chilling unit as well as separate counters for selling fresh and dry fish. CED says that by December all work, except for the tiling of the electrical room, will be completed. That a project, which started in December 2010 is still not over, irks citizens. Ajay S Kumar, a city resident says, “Through an RTI, I found out that the amount spent on its construction was Rs 1.92 crores. It causes concern that a public facility on which so much money was spent is not ready even after so many years.”