The delegates and movie buffs attending the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is facing huge problems of commuting, mainly because of the plight of the roads bearing the venues of the festival.
The road from Panavila to Thampanoor, which passes the Kairali theatre, is still under construction, at the eleventh hour. Both the Kerala Water Authority's and the Kerala Road Fund Board's (KRFB) works are going on there simultaneously, due to which half of the road space is occupied. These works which were to be finished long before remain incomplete. The officials put the blame on the untimely downpours.
An IFFK volunteer, Sminu, said, “With the rash driving of the private bus drivers, a walk through these roads is a perilous journey.”
Asked about the delay in the resurfacing of the roads, which is meant to take place annually, Sreekanthan Nair, Project Engineer of the KRFB said, “The necessary plans had been laid long ago, but the rains have spoiled everything.”
On the inconvenience caused to the public, he said the people were bound to suffer such problems every time the road works take place. “But, still the delay is highly regretted since the foreign delegates are likely to get a wrong impression and hence we have planned for the tarring of the road and is hoping it to be completed by tomorrow morning with tonight's vigorous works.” Majority of such issues were caused by the inter-departmental conflicts which were prevalent all over the world but slightly critical in case of Thiruvananthapuram, he added.
