Kaviyoor: Roads are essential parts of public life. But not all are courteous enough to donate sand to build those roads.

When residents of wards 3 and 5 in the panchayat and three churches joined hands, three unpaved, narrow roads were turned into almost brand new, wider roads, making many households accessible by vehicles. 

When the district panchayat decided to renovate the Punnillam-Vallakkadavu Road in ward 3, it was hardly 3m to 3.50m wide. The district panchayat could not sanction funds to renovate a road if it wasn’t at least 5 metres wide.

A chapel belonging to the Kottoor St Mary’s Orthodox Church stood at the start of the road.  The church removed the compound wall of the chapel to make available land for road widening.The allocation of land was made with the permission of Dr Yuhanon Mar Chrisostomos Metropolitan. Eleven other families by the roadside followed suit. Compound walls were rebuilt for the families who lost them while donating land. 

The nearly 600-metre-long road was made motorable by surfacing, using Irish concrete on the sides and concreting stretches susceptible to inundation. District panchayat member C K Lathakumari, block panchayat member Joseph John and panchayat member C H Achu oversaw the renovation of the road. Panchayat President M D Dinesh Kumar took the initiative to include the road in the local body’s asset register. 

Another road in the same ward near the south of the Kottoor Eettikkal chapel of the Iraviperoor Immanuel Marthoma Church was too narrow that four families to the south of the chapel could only access it on foot. Around 100 metres of the road belonged to the chapel and it had a compound wall. However, this wall was demolished to donate land to widen the road by another 4 feet. The families rebuilt the wall by their own hard work and funds. The vehicle can now reach these households once the electric posts along the road are relocated. 

The third road was built in the fifth ward of the panchayat. Ten families near the Kottoor Little Flower Church and the Cherupushpa Vilasam LP School had only a footpath. Here again, houses on either side of the road and the Church and its school allotted land for widening it Archbishop Thomas Mar Koorlios permitted to grant the church's land. 

Panchayat member V S Sindhu included the road in the panchayat asset register, facilitating the allocation of ₹4 lakhs from the Scheduled Caste Fund for making the road motorable by concreting it.