The National Highway stretch from Vytila to Edapally is one of the most frequented public spaces in the State of Kerala. This broad stretch which passes through the heart of the Cochin city also plays an important role in regulating and decongesting the traffic conditions of the Cochin city. The Kochi Municipal Corporation has been receiving many complaints with regard to the poor maintenance of this stretch. It is against this backdrop that the Kochi Municipal Corporation has come forward to clean this stretch and beautify it with flowering plants and maintaining it for a stipulated period as per the specifications and guidelines of the National Highway Authority of India and included the project in Mission Kochi 15-8-15 campaign of the Kochi Municipal Corporation.
The Kochi Municipal Corporation’s ambitious project for city beautification under the Mission Kochi 15-8-15 was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Excise, Ports and Fisheries Minister Shri. K Babu on January 24th, 2015. A stakeholders committee, Kochi Bypass Beautification Society, had been constituted for undertaking the project under the supervision of the Kochi Municipal Corporation. The society has city’s leading businessmen as its members. V-Guard Groups Chairman Shri. Kochouseph Chittilappilly is the Chairman of the Society, Eastern Group Project Director Shri. M.E Mohammed is the Secretary and the Manager of Holiday Inn Shri. P.C. John is the treasurer of the Society. The National Highway Authority of India has given permission to beautify and maintains the stretch for a period of 3 years.
The stakeholders had spent an amount of Rs 1 Crore for the beautification of the stretch in addition to the maintenance cost of Rs 37 Lakh spent by the Kochi Municipal Corporation. 20000 saplings were planted on the central median on 4.6 km of the 6 km long stretch. The side medians along with the service roads would also be beautified in future as the 2nd phase of the beautification project.
Shri. Benny Behanan MLA was the chief guest in the inaugural function. The inaugural function was presided by Hon’ble Mayor, Shri. Tony Chammany, attended by Shri. T.J. Vinod, Chairman, Development Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Smt. Saumini Jain, Chairperson, Public Works Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Shri. R. Thyagarajan, Chairman, Education and Sports Standing Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation, Shri. V. R Raju, Secretary, Kochi Municipal Corporation and other key stakeholders.
The project is being coordinated by the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (c-hed) for the Kochi Municipal Corporation.