With the Cheranallore Pouravali joining the bandwagon of NGOs that have been crying foul about alleged unscientific construction of drains and service roads in many areas on the 24-km Edappally-Muthakunnam stretch of NH 66 that is being developed into a six-lane NH 66 corridor, and organising a torch-lit protest on Thursday, a meeting of stakeholders was convened here on Friday evening.
Representatives of the agitating organisations, Hibi Eden, MP, T.J. Vinod, MLA, and others conveyed their grievances to, among others, District Collector N.S.K. Umesh and officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the agency that is executing the highway’s six-laning work, and the PWD. A site inspection will be done next week, while the agitators demanded publication of the project’s DPR.
The Cheranallor Pouravali alleged that the NHAI remained a mute spectator, even as the firm that had been entrusted with the highway development works was constructing drains that obstructed access to innumerable houses and shops. Other organisations like NH Samara Samiti, Cheranallor Janakeeya Samiti and Cheranaloor Development Committee had been agitating, demanding construction of drains and service roads at the same level as that of plots on either side. Their other demands included construction of wide underpasses at busy junctions for pedestrians and motorists to safely cross over to the other side of the highway.
“The affected include those who had surrendered their land for the highway project. Making matters worse, these drains have blocked the network of drains that were developed by Cheranallor Municipality and other agencies. This would in turn lead to dirty water from the drains gushing into houses and other plots in the vicinity during heavy rain, inundating them. The worst part is that the width of the service road has been limited to a mere 5.50 m at many places (making two-way traffic difficult),” said general convener of the Pouravali N.V. Shihabuddin.
“The unscientific work has affected access to at least 15 roads that took off from the highway, while many bus waiting shelters have been dismantled. All this has hampered access to educational institutions, places of worship, shops and houses,” he said.
The president of Cheranaloor Grama Panchayat, Rajesh, said notoriously narrow service roads were being built at innumerable places. “There are other locales like near Cheranaloor Signal Junction, where there are no service roads at all, endangering the life of road users, mainly people from the locality and pedestrians,” he added.
With the NHAI stating at multiple occasions that the highway will be flanked by wide service roads, the panchayat has demanded that land be acquired, if needed, to hew out wide-enough service roads for hassle-free movement of vehicles.
Responding to the concerns, NHAI sources said that the agency was facing many constrains since land ought to have been acquired at minimum 60-m-width, to cater to specifications of Indian Roads Congress (IRC) on service roads. “We have been trying to make optimal use of the land that was made available at 45-m width, to ready service roads and drains on either side. There are locales where the width is less than 45 m, due to ‘disputes’.”
Service roads are there in 22.60 km of the 26-km NH corridor that was handed over to the contractor, they added, when asked about the absence of service roads in many areas.
