The Alappuzha Cargo Terminal project of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), which was hanging in balance following land acquisition hassles and protests from the public, will finally take a step forward this week when the government hands over the required land.
The project, which is part of the IWAI's plan to develop the 205-km National Waterway-3, which includes the much-talked about Kollam-Kottappuram stretch, was stalled after the district administration found it difficult to acquire the land and to hand it over to the IWAI and also due to strong opposition from the public, environmentalists and political parties to the terminal itself.
However, according to District Collector P. Venugopal, the district administration had finally sorted out the bottlenecks over land acquisition and would hand over the 5.63 acres required for the terminal to the IWAI on September 24.
Once the land was taken over by the IWAI, procedures to begin work on the terminal would be initiated, IWAI officials told The Hindu . This, they said, would hopefully speed up the work to develop the NW-3 as the country's first waterway having 24-hour navigational facilities on the entire stretch.
The development of the NW-3 had 11 terminals as part of the action plan. Seven of these, at Kottappuram, Aluva, Maradu, Vaikom, Thanneermukkom, Thrikkunnapuzha and Kayamkulam, were over while that at Kollam was nearing completion. Two were under construction at Bolghatty and Willingdon Island to connect the NW-3 to the upcoming international terminal at Vallarpadam.
Cargo movement along the NW-3 which was 1.17 million tonnes in 2005-2006 had fallen to a mere 0.76 million tonnes in 2008-2009 with one of the main reasons being the obstacles in the path of developing the 76-km Alappuzha-Kollam stretch, which is the narrowest and also the longest on the entire waterway. Once the developmental work is completed, the projected cargo movement along the waterway is 7.17 million tonnes by 2020.
The Alappuzha terminal, which will come up right opposite the Nehru Pavilion of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race at the Punnamada Finishing Point, was also opposed by various quarters on counts of possible
environmental pollution and the possibility of the boat race facing hurdles. The opposing voices, despite the land acquisition being over, are yet to die down.
