Thiruvananthapuram Corporation makes elaborate arrangements for Attukal Pongala

Thiruvananthapuram Corporation prepares for Attukal Pongala festival with waste management, road maintenance, water supply, and green protocol enforcement.

Over the past few weeks, the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the Attukal Pongala festival to be held in the city on Thursday (March 12). While waste management after the festival is the civic body’s major focus, it has also readied other facilities, including maintenance work on roads in the festival area.

According to Corporation officials, work on most of the interior roads managed by the Corporation in the festival area, which stretches across 30 wards, have been completed ahead of the festival.

“Maintenance and re-tarring works have been completed in over ten roads. The Corporation has also completed the work of laying interlocking tiles near the temple. The work on a drainage behind the temple is also ongoing. We have completed almost all the civil works the temple trust had suggested,” said Medayil Vikraman, chairperson of the Corporation’s works standing committee.

The Corporation has also arranged around 40 tanker lorries for the supply of drinking water at all major locations connected with the festival. Public can contact the number (9446677838) for drinking water and other services related to the festival.

The civic body’s health wing in association with the Suchitwa Mission had also stepped up enforcement activities to ensure banned plastic products are not sold or used during the festival. Over 30 kg of banned plastic products were seized from shops in the festival area.

The Corporation will enforce the green protocol for the festival this year too to ensure environment-friendly celebrations. The voluntary organisations and residents associations that are involved in food and drinking water distribution should not use plates or cups made of plastic, multi-layer plastic, thermocol or paper, or any other disposable material. The voluntary organisations are required to register with the Corporation’s Smart Trivandrum mobile application. As part of the protocol, the faithful are advised to bring only steel tumblers and plates and limit the use of plastic. Two hundred green army volunteers have been on the ground from March 8 for door-to-door awareness campaigns regarding the green protocol to be followed for the festival.

The Corporation will deploy 3,470 sanitation workers for clean-up activities, including the collection of bricks used in the makeshift hearths for Attukal Pongala. The bricks will be used for constructing houses for the families identified as extremely poor. The civic body has also made arrangements for around 350 vehicles for collecting bricks from across the city.