Maraud flats demolition: Restoring the faith of homebuyers

KOCHI: City planners will have to formulate a

development plan for Ernakulam

, marking out detailed coastal regulation zones (CRZ) and wetlands in the wake of the demolition of

residential buildings in Maraud

. A gross mistake committed by municipal officials proved costly for hapless flat-owners, who had put their hard-earned life savings into the illegal buildings.


It could have been avoided if there was a detailed coastal zone map, which clearly identified such areas in municipal areas and panchayats in the district. The accompanying map (on the right side) by the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority shows the broad red gashes that pass through the district, which are basically areas that come under the ambit the CRZ rules and where we can have only restricted development. Ernakulam has very little area to develop as the district is surrounded by backwater lagoons, lakes, canals systems and fringe islands, which if reclaimed, may prove costly for the city.


The huge water-logging that occurred in the city for the first time in its history during the last monsoon was due to unbridled developmental and real estate activities, without setting apart adequate water outlets into the backwater region. “Even the canals which are connected to the backwater are influenced by inter-tidal acclivity. The whole concept of having CRZ rules is to save the region from an ecological disaster. In the case of buildings that came in Maradu, there was not only CRZ violation, but even violation of the wetland Act as part of a lake was reclaimed over a period of time,” K V Thomas, scientist and coastal management expert, said.

Ernakulam has 25 five grama panchayats, six municipalities, which include Paravur, Eloor, Thrikkakara, Kalamassery, Tripunithura and Maradu and Kochi municipal corporation, under the purview of CRZ.

Regions like Maradu was treated as a backwater island and buildings could come up 50m away from the landed area as per 2011 notification (this rule has been diluted to 20m in the 2019 notification), but it is a fact that many residential buildings under scanner have come up almost at a spitting distance from the lake.

The developers constructed numerous buildings after 2000 that had neither aesthetic value and without even considering whether these apartments would be able to provide a sustainable living for its inmates.

Experts point till four years ago, Kochi had a structured plan and floor area ratios (FIR)s were demarcated for each region. “For instance, the corporation area had an FIR of 1.5, MG Road and Bypass Road had an FIR of 2 and 2.5, respectively. The capping was scrapped four years ago and people could construct without abiding by any norms leading to monstrous buildings and malls that not only destroyed the cityscape but even put great pressure on basic amenities like water supply and solid waste management of the city,” said K J Sohan, former mayor and social activist.

A sanitation study by SCMS Water Institute shows that more than half of the groundwater in Kochi municipal area is contaminated with E-coli bacteria. “We do not even have the post of surveyors and health officers in the Kochi Corporation. The town planning department has no clue of how to handle the new problem arising from heavy monsoon or cyclonic changes, which are going to bring in the seawater into the city streets in the near future,” he said.

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