Ending a wait that lasted nearly two decades, the railway overbridge (RoB) near Caritas Junction at Thellakom was thrown open to the public on Thursday.
Public Works Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, who inaugurated the RoB online, said a project worth ₹250 crores was on to make Kerala a level-cross free State. It envisages construction of as many as 94 RoBs including 72 RoBs by the Roads and Bridges Corporation.
Further, 63 flyovers being built under the KIIFB project are at various stages of implementation. The government aims to complete 25 railway flyovers by 202 and of this, acquisition of 20 is in progress, he added.
Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan preside over the function. Thomas Chazhikadan delivered the keynote address.
Local residents, under the ageis of the Thellakom-Mundakapam Grama Vikasana Samiti, had been demanding an overbridge at Caritas Junction since 2005 and its construction was included in the priority list of the State government in 2007.
The works on the proposed bridge was sanctioned in the Railway Budget 2010-11, though the estimated cost for the project had to be revised several times with the delay in land acquisition.
Though the Railways floated a tender in 2016 for the RoB at a cost of ₹317.76 lakh, it failed to take off due to a delay in land acquisition. Though the issue was settled through different rounds of negotiations, the project had faced further delays owing to a lack of response to the project tenders floated.
