Despite a relentless struggle for more than three decades, Sakkaluthu Mettu ghat road, the shortest route to Idukki district from Thevaram in Bodi block, falling under Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s constituency, remains a distant dream to people, especially estate workers in Thevaram and Uthamapalyam, and also Tamil families residing in border areas of Kerala.
It is the shortest route for workers to reach cardamom estates in Udumbansolai, Negunkandam and nearby areas in Idukki district.
Due to an inordinate delay in formation of the road, estate workers and traders travel 80 kmevery day to go for work and return home, says A. Thirupathi Vasakan, president of the 18{+t}{+h}Channel Farmers’ Association and former president of T. Renganathapuram panchayat.
It will also benefit Tamil families residing in Idukki district as a majority of their children study in schools in Theni district.
They reach their schools through Kumuli-Dindigul highway or Cumbum Mettu ghat road, he adds.
On May 25, 1981, the then Minister for Highways K. Kulandaivelu laid a foundation stone for formation of this road connecting T. Mettupatti and Sakkaluthu Mettu. Since then, the project has been kept in abeyance as successive governments did not show any interest in its implementation.
But people of Thevaram have been appealing to MLAs representing Bodinaickanur and Collectors to implement the much needed project.
In the late 1990s, the then Minister for Forests S. Selvaraj inspected the area and assured to implement the road project. Later, an approach road up to the foothills of Western Ghats was laid. .
When the T. Renganathapuram panchayat administration sent a letter to the Department of Forests to grant permission to lay the road in 2008, the department replied that the Minister for Forests had given in principle approval for laying the Sakkaluthu Mettu road in 2007 and it was ready to clear the project if the executive agency sent a proposal in this connection.
Reacting to a petition submitted by Ramakkalmettu Tourists Multipurpose Society, Idukki district, to lay the inter-State Ramakkal Mettu road, the then Theni DFO Srinivasa R. Reddy, in a letter in November 2009, had stated that the government had agreed to lay the Sakkaluthu Mettu road and residents of Kombai and Ramakkal Mettu could use it.
A six-km-long road has already been laid and only a 4.5-km-long road needs to be completed in the reserve forest area.
This road will save considerable time, money and fuel, say vehicle operators.
