World Bank team visits Ernakulam

KOCHI: On Wednesday a team of the World Bank (WB)  comprising of two officials visited the areas that were hit by the recent floods in Ernakulam. The team visited the flood-hit handloom units at Chendamangalam and Kerala Aqua Ventures International Ltd (KAVIL) at Paravur.

Junaid Ahmad the director of WB in India and the country operation manager Hisham Abu Kahin visited Chendamangalam panchayat office, Karimpadam handloom society and KAVIL aquaculture farm at Paravur.

Ahmad appreciated the unified relief works which were done by the state government and people of Kerala. "The incident of flood and relief works that were done here were noticed even at an international level. The panchayats can avail funds from a lot many schemes given by WB," said Ahmad.

A government marketing company of ornamental fish, KAVIL has made an estimation of the loss incurred during the floods to be around Rs 16 crores. "In the meeting held with WB officials, it was recommended to include Kudumbashree workers for further expansion of homestead units of KAVIL," said KAVIL MD Dinesh Cheruvat.

About 534 homestead units are functioning around the area by associating with KAVIL. The loss occurred to the homesteads amounts to Rs 11 crore. "We have given the estimate of damages to the government and hope that WB's visit will help us in restoration works," said Cheruvat.