It has been around a year since the National Highway Authority of India issued the notification for land acquisition for the proposed Outer Ring Road project under the Capital Region Development Programme. However, the delay in reaching a consensus on cost-sharing for land acquisition of the project, including main carriageways and service roads, between the State and Central government has impeded the progress of the project. The Outer Ring Road (ORR) is conceived as a state-of-the-art road corridor which is largely a greenfield alignment that connects Vizhinjam Port on the southern end and Kallamballam Junction on NH-66 leading to Mangalapuram junction and Kollam towards the northern end.
When the project was conceived, the State government had agreed to share 50% of land acquisition cost, and 100% cost of the service road. However, the project got stalled when the State requested the Centre to exempt it from sharing the land acquisition cost by listing the project under the Bharatmala Pariyojana. The Centre then sought a waiver of State’s share of Goods and Service Tax (GST) and royalty for construction material for the Thiruvananthapuram ORR section of NH-866.
In response, the State agreed to waive its share of tax and royalty, but asked the Centre to shoulder the cost of the service road as well, considering the precarious financial situation of the State. The Centre has not responded to this suggestion to date, which is the main reason for the inordinate delay in the project execution. Speaking to The Hindu, a senior official said the State and Centre have arrived at a consensus on the majority of points raised by both sides. Only the service road issue remains to be resolved. Once the Centre makes up its mind on the request of the State, there would not be any further delay in the project, he added.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will have to issue either a fresh 3A notification or renew the existing notification to acquire land for the proposed ORR project if the agreement was not signed between the State and Centre within one year after the first 3A notification. Apart from the 3A notification, the NHAI had also floated a tender for dividing the project into two packages.
The proposed ORR is expected to bring in huge economic development in the underutilised region through which the new NH passes when the ₹7,700-crore all-weather Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport is commissioned. The first phase of the project is expected to be commissioned by May 2014. A satellite township is also planned along the region with a comprehensive Master Development Plan Area for Outer Area Growth Corridor (OAGC), which is conceptualised for an influence area of 2.5 km on both sides of ORR.
