Even as the widening and extension of the Thammanam-Pullepady Road got a shot in the arm with the State government issuing a notification a fortnight ago, transferring the corridor from the Kochi Corporation to the Public Works department (PWD), a whole lot of procedures ought to be completed for the land acquisition process and to hand over the acquired land to the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), the agency that will subsequently take up the road construction work, it is learnt.
The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had sanctioned ₹93.89 crore of the around ₹250 crore that is estimated, to acquire the requisite land to widen the road into a four-lane corridor. “Still, a whole lot of procedural and other formalities ought to be overcome. Financial sanction is next in line, following which a tender ought to be called to lay boundary stones on the 3.68-km alignment that begins from Chakkaraparambu on NH Bypass and ends at Padma Junction on M.G. Road,” sources said.
This will be followed by the KRFB forwarding of a requisition letter to the District Collector to commence the land acquisition process. He could appoint the KIIFB tahsildar or Kochi Corporation tahsildar to again survey the requisite land. The social impact assessment (SIA) study by the Revenue department will follow suit. The process could take two months. A mandatory notification followed by the PWD (Buildings wing) or the KRFB estimating the value of buildings that ought to be fully or partly demolished should be done, it is learnt.
Those processes will be followed by the acquired plots being handed over to the KRFB. The shifting of underground and overhead utility lines to facilitate construction of the 22-m-wide road, widening of junctions and construction of the road is estimated to take another 18 months. These works alone are estimated to cost about ₹70 crore.
Mayor M. Anilkumar said the KIIFB had assured requisite funds for land acquisition and the development of the road corridor. “It is hoped that the four-lane road, the development of which was hanging fire for about three decades, will be realised with the least delay,” he added.
While expressing contentment at the State government issuing a notification handing over the Thammanam-Pullepady Road to the PWD, P.S. Jayasankar, one of the landowners who had given written consent to surrender his plot for the road in 2017, said that he hoped the “multiple rounds of laying stones” on the corridor would not further delay the project. “The PWD (Design wing) alone took a year’s time to ready the road’s revised design. Rest of the works ought to be executed on a war footing, considering the need to decongest S.A. Road and Banerjee Road that run parallel to the corridor,” he said.
