Shibu BS By Express News Service KOCHI: The preliminary meeting between representatives of Netherlands-based consortium, the project consultant of the Canal revitalisation project, and officials of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) will be held here on November 18. The Rs 1,364-crore project mainly aims at revamping five major canals in Kochi to make them navigable. The consortium, comprising Dutch agencies Antea Nederland BV and Unihorn, will prepare the project’s concept, detailed design and will provide supervisory services to KMRL during implementation. At the meeting, KMRL officials will apprise the consortium of the details of the plans and the aim and overall expectations of the project. The project is expected to be completed within 42 months.Earlier, KMRL managing director Alkesh Kumar Sharma had said the agency was planning to implement the project as per the Amsterdam model. “The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre prepared the initial proposal. The report will be assessed and any missing components will be added. Encroachments along the canals will be removed and the water bodies will be cleaned and beautified,” Sharma said. “We know there are a lot of hurdles to make existing canals navigable. The major issue raised is the presence of bridges along the stretch of the canals. We can overcome the hurdles by coming up with options, including retractable bridges,” he said. Canals covered Under the project, five major canals having a total length of 34.5 km will be cleaned and dredged to facilitate transport. They are the Edappally canal (11.23 km), Chilavannoor canal (11.023 km), Thevara-Perandoor canal (9.84 km), Thevara canal (1.41 km) and Market canal (0.66 km). Of these, the Edappally canal will be renovated first at an estimated `226 crore. ‘Include West Kochi’ West Kochi-based people’s collective – Voice of Kochi – has demanded the inclusion of the 5.8-km-long boundary canal (Rameswaram canal) in the revamp project. The canal flows through Fort Kochi and affects many adjoining wards of West Kochi. “It is good that KMRL has tied up with the Dutch agency for canal rejuvenation. However, in every such project, West Kochi gets neglected. This happened when Operation Breakthrough to solve aterlogging was announced. We will protest against this neglect,” said K H Haneesh, a member.

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