A scene from MG Road

KOCHI: Thirty minutes of heavy rains on Saturday night and the main parts in the city were waterlogged. It started to rain around 6.30 pm and within a few minutes, MG Road and Gopala Prabhu Road at Ernakulam Market was waterlogged, resulting in traffic snarls.

The drain passing through the KSEB compound at Kaloor overflowed bringing back memories of the waterlogging on October 21. The district collector had launched Operation Breakthrough to clean the canals in the city and find a solution to the waterlogging issue.

IMD had declared moderate rainfall for Ernakulam on Saturday. “The exact amount of rainfall will only be known on Sunday morning,” said an official with IMD.

Meanwhile the technical committee, constituted by the district administration to implement Operation Breakthrough, has started assessing the obstacles in the drains in 27 divisions in Kochi corporation.

These divisions are situated on Thevara-Ernakulam North and Marine Drive-Edappally stretches. As per the initial estimate, work on eight divisions would cost around Rs 6.62 crore, said the committee which met on Saturday.

The project envisages clearing of obstacles in the drains, identifying the drains leading to major canals and also identifying the canals that need to be desilted. Next meeting of the committee will be held on Tuesday. Presentation regarding obstacles in five canals will be held on Thursday. “The total expenditure for the whole work will be known after the presentation of details of all the drains and canals. Currently, team members are preparing estimate of the work after visiting the spots,” said a member of the committee.

The state government has allotted Rs 10 crore for the work as first instalment.

