If things work out according to plans, Mulavukad islanders will have their long delayed service road parallel to the Container Terminal Road by the end of next year.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to open the technical bid for the ₹19-crore project on March 26. This is for the second time a bid is being invited as the previous bid had failed to find any takers.
If the current bid also goes down a similar path then the NHAI would assign the work to an agency of its choice. The agency had originally planned to complete the construction within a year of its commencement. However, it may take another six months considering the low- lying nature of the terrain, which calls for greater consolidation time. The project is of significance to the NHAI since local residents organised under the Mulavukad Janakeeya Samithi was against any toll collection before the construction of the service road and had stopped the agency from launching toll collection on more than one occasion though the work on the toll plaza was completed sometime back.
It was after a long drawn out battle spanning over five years that the NHAI eventually decided to construct a 2.6-kilometre service road between Bolghatty and Kattathukkadavu parallel to the Container Terminal Road on its own, replacing Kerala State Construction Corporation Limited (KSCCL).
The NHAI had initially entrusted KSCCL with raising the stretch of the proposed road by four to five feet using soil after Kitco had submitted a report calling for the two phased development of the road. The idea was to construct a proper road in the second phase after giving the elevated stretch a settlement period of one year through vehicular movement. But this was opposed by the local residents and they demanded the execution of the project at one go.
An attempt to forcibly start the collection of toll during the midnight of August 2015 failed following a massive public protest.
