Saturday, Jul 10, 2004
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By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 9. As many as 25 bridges on the National Highways in the State are in a very hazardous condition and the Government has submitted a proposal to the Centre for strengthening them along with the road widening work, the Public Works Minister, M. K. Muneer, told the Assembly today. In reply to questions, he said the Dharmadam and Moidu bridges were in a very dangerous condition. The Government's priority was on improving the quality of the NH stretches in the State. Many stretches were not even two-lane at present. The NH 47 and NH 17 stretches would be given priority in the matter of four-lane widening. None of the NH bypasses can be completed in the near future if the Centre continued to make piecemeal allocation of funds, the Minister said. The Government had suggested that those projects for which the land acquisition was over, should be included in a separate scheme and the full allocation released at one go. The MPs from the State should pressure the Centre in this regard. Full allocation had been sought from the Centre for the Kollam Bypass since a BOT arrangement was not feasible. With 2.5 km stretch of bridges, the bypass was estimated to cost Rs. 90 crores. As many as nine bypass project proposals were with the Centre at present. The third phase of the Kozhikode bypass was nearing completion and there were indications that the fourth reach would be included in the next Plan. The pre-feasibility study for the Cherthala-Thiruvananthapuram four-lane road was in progress and a Japanese bank had been approached for aid. Efforts were being made to get the work on the road overbridges on the Alappuzha Bypass started along with the road work. In view of the rising number of road accidents, the Government had asked for the allocation of funds for road safety improvement along with road development funds. The Chief Engineer had been given strict instructions to prevent encroachment of road space by arches, stupas, mandapams, etc. However, a political consensus was needed to check this. In a written reply, Dr. Muneer said that according to preliminary estimates, a total amount of Rs. 6,473 crores would be needed to complete the Express Highway project in 15 years. As much as 3,897 hectares of agricultural land and 433 hectares of developed land would have to be acquired at a cost of Rs. 2,000 crores.
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