Kodinada-Vazhimukku road devpt: Govt okays 102cr more

Time of India

a day ago

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T'puram: The state govt has sanctioned Rs 102.4 crore as compensation amount for the land to be acquired for the development of the 1.5km Kodinada-Vazhimukku stretch at Balaramapuram, as part of the Karamana-Kaliyikkavila highway project.
Finance minister K N Balagopal announced it on Tuesday. A total of Rs 97.6 crore was allocated earlier.
Of the total Rs 200 crore, Rs 160 crore has been earmarked for land acquisition and Rs 40 crore for compensation related to structures and buildings to be demolished for the four-lane project.
Parassala MLA C K Hareendran, who oversees the project, said the compensation disbursal would begin within a week. "The sanctioned amount will be transferred to the district collector and subsequently to the special tahsildar for the project.
We hope to transfer the compensation amount to the landowners' bank accounts within a week," he said.
After completing disbursal, the tender for road construction is expected to be invited in July so that construction can start in Sept.
Balagopal confirmed that the entire amount required is available now. The Kerala Road Fund Board will serve as the project's implementing agency. To minimize private land acquisition, the state plans to utilize govt land along a 300m stretch near the Thykkapalli mosque, known as the Old Rajapatha.
Authorities initially planned to complete the acquisition by Feb this year and commence construction by April, but deadlines were missed. An underpass was also proposed at the congested Balaramapuram Junction, but it was dropped later due to opposition from landowners. Motorists travelling from Parassala and Neyyattinkara to Thiruvananthapuram often face severe congestion at Balaramapuram, which has become a bottleneck.
A Kunjalumoodu-based contractor is handling demolition, with buildings being razed at both Balaramapuram and Kodinada ends.
Manual survey soon for final phase
The state govt is likely to start the manual survey soon for the four-laning of Vazhimukku to Kaliyikkavila stretch on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. The govt issued an order recently in this regard. "The govt has already earmarked Rs 562 crore for the compensation and to survey the land to be acquired on this stretch.
Once the construction of the Kodinada-Vazhimukku starts, manual survey will also begin on this stretch.
Earlier, a LiDAR survey was conducted, which was found to be ineffective. A manual survey will be more precise. We expect to start acquiring land for the Vazhimukku-Kaliyikkavila before state govt's tenure gets over," Hareendran said.
A final decision has been made to widen this stretch to 30.2m and not 30m as proposed earlier.