Residents near illegal to be demolished buildings begin fast

: Residents in the neighbourhood of over 300 illegal waterfront apartment complexes at Maradu, ordered to be demolished by the Supreme Court, have begun an indefinite fast, seeking urgent government intervention to secure the safety of their houses.

They fear that the demolition of the apartment complexes by controlled implosion would extensively damage their houses.

The residents, who began the fast on Wednesday, alleged that their houses were damaged even in the pre-demolition work carried out by agencies contracted with demolishing them.

The authorities have set January 11 and 12 as dates for demolition of over 300 flats.

The intermediate walls of the buildings have been demolished through pre-demolition works and now the apartments are standing on bare structures.

Ernakulam district authorities and other agencies, including Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation, have started completing formalities, including issuing No Objection Certificates and clearance certificates to the firms won the contracts to bring down the structures, official sources said.

Around 850 kg of explosives are reportedly required for the demolition of the buildings using controlled implosion.

A total of 343 waterfront flats were built in the Maradu municpality by violating the Coastal Regulation Zone norms.

The Supreme Court in September last year had directed demolition of the apartment complexes within 138 days, a time line given by the Kerala government.

On May 8 last year, the apex court had directed that these buildings be removed within a month as they were constructed in a notified CRZ, which was part of the tidally- influenced water body in Kerala.

The court had passed the order after taking note of a report of a three-member committee, which said when the buildings were built, the area was already notified as a CRZ and construction was prohibited.