As the indefinite day-night satyagraha by local MP P. Karunakaran adjacent to the railway level-crossing at Pallikkare in Neeleshwaram seeking to clear technical hurdles to facilitate a rail overbridge at the busy national highway entered the third day, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
The meeting, planned at 4 p.m., comes amid credible reports that the CM’s office has furnished reports to the Union Surface Transport Ministry and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials in New Delhi seeking intervention to launch work on the long- pending rail overbridge to end the prolonged ordeal faced by roadusers.
The decision to hold the special meeting by the Chief Minister comes against the backdrop of State PWD Chief Engineer (NH) K. Prabhakaran rushing to New Delhi on Monday to submit report and hold talks with the authorities concerned.
Meanwhile, the NHAI has directed its Kerala wing to submit updated report on the proposed rail overbridge. The proposal hit a roadblock owing to technical hurdles amid hectic efforts to develop the NH-66 into a six-lane 45-m-wide road. The meeting by the Chief Minister is expected to be attended by Neeleswaram municipal chairman K.P. Jayarajan and senior CPI(M) leaders V.P.P. Mustafa and M.V. Balakrishnan.
