The Mundamveli apartment complex built by the Greater Cochin Development Authority to rehabilitate families evicted from the erstwhile P&T Colony. 

Saritha Madhavan, a 40-year-old divorcee who lives with her aged mother and elder sister in the apartment complex at Mundamveli built by the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) to rehabilitate families from the erstwhile P&T Colony, has been using just a single burner of her gas stove since Friday (May 23, 2025).

It is not that the stove has fallen into disrepair overnight, but water leaking from the roof of her second-floor apartment seeps straight into the other burner, thanks to the intermittent heavy showers lashing the city since Friday, marking the onset of the monsoon. This is not an ordeal reserved for Ms. Madhavan, who is also the secretary of the apartment complex, as almost all 77 families are left to face similar challenges with leaky roofs and sidewalls.

“It is impossible to pinpoint a single leakage point, though the worst-affected area in my apartment is the kitchen, turning cooking into a circus. The slab is built in such a way that even moving the gas stove is not an option. I cannot say whether the water seeping over my stove is from the upper-floor apartment’s toilet or rainwater. The association’s WhatsApp group is flooded with such complaints,” she said.

For families who moved into the apartment complex from the P&T Colony, which turned into a swamp with the first spell of showers, it has been a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. While at the colony, they had the option of moving into relief camps or to acquaintances’ houses in the neighbourhood — an option they no longer have.

 “A team from IIT Madras visited the apartment complex around a fortnight ago, but there has been little progress since, and now the monsoon has already set in. There has also been no progress on the proposal to put up a trusswork using the Kochi MLA’s development funds,” rued Abhilash P. Parameswaran, an office-bearer of the residents’ association.

After an inordinate delay, the State government eventually gave its nod last month to appoint IIT Madras as a consultant to detect structural and design flaws and recommend solutions for the apartment complex. “The government order to place an agreement between the GCDA and IIT Madras is expected anytime now. Once that is in place, IIT Madras will provide the recommendations in writing,” said GCDA sources.

The district administration has sanctioned the trusswork, an immediate temporary fix for the leaking, to be carried out by the Kochi Corporation using the MLA funds. ”The Corporation is awaiting the structural stability certificate for the building before beginning the work,” said Mayor M. Anilkumar 

“IIT Madras has gathered the relevant details and will provide its structural stability report in writing, based on which the certificate will be issued immediately. The trusswork can be undertaken even during the rain and can be completed in about a fortnight,” said GCDA sources.

The 77 families from the P&T Colony near Perandoor Canal, Kadavanthra, moved into the apartment complex in January 2024. However, some apartments began leaking during the first showers that February, and soon nearly all were affected by the relentless rain.