P&T apartment residents to hit protest path again

Babu Venugopalan, 46, a casual worker, shudders to imagine what fate might have befallen his two children had the ceiling fan in their P&T apartment at Mundamveli collapsed on them instead of him.

He was drying his hair after a bath on Friday (June 12, 2026) evening when the ceiling fan in his bedroom suddenly came unhinged, striking his shoulder and slamming its blades against his chest, leaving him with bruises and contusions. He has now been advised to undergo a CT scan at the Ernakulam General Hospital on Monday (June 15, 2026). Though fortunate to have escaped more serious injuries, he has been left indisposed and his livelihood has been disrupted.

“Luckily, my two sons, aged eight and 12, were outside playing when the incident occurred. It could easily have proved fatal. Our apartment tower has developed a tilt and is unfit for habitation. We were promised heaven when we moved here but are now left to rot in hell. The proximity of high-tension power lines poses serious safety hazards to residents,” said Mr. Venugopalan. He added that water had been leaking into the fan cup, which had probably caused rusting of the entire system, leading to the collapse.

Residents, organised under the P&T Apartment Owners Association, are preparing to launch yet another protest at the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) headquarters in Kadavanthra on Monday, demanding an immediate solution to their woes. On May 26, they staged a day-long siege of the GCDA, which commissioned the towers, pressing for action on the alleged violation of the mandatory distance norms separating the 110-kV extra high-tension (EHT) line from the twin towers.

A meeting convened by the District Collector in February had resolved to undertake fibre plastering at a cost of ₹28 lakh on the exterior of the twin apartment blocks at Mundamveli as an interim measure to arrest leakage before the onset of the monsoon, with permanent structural rectifications promised by the end of the year.

“Leakage-proof measures recommended by an expert committee report of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras ahead of the monsoon remain unimplemented. We are now banking on a submission on our plight that Kochi MLA Mohammed Shiyas is set to raise in the Assembly during the next session,” said Association president Abhilash P. Parameswaran.

Almost all apartments began leaking during the very first spell of showers after residents moved into the twin blocks, comprising 44 and 42 units, in January 2024. Internal leakage from bathrooms was also reported shortly thereafter, compounding the crisis.