The Centre has officially communicated to the State government that it cannot accede to the request to reduce the requirement of right of way (RoW) for National Highway (NH) development projects in the State to 30 metres from the proposed 45 metres.
The decision was communicated by top officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to top officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) who arrived in New Delhi on Friday for talks in connection with the rehabilitation package of the projects. Official sources told The Hindu from New Delhi that the decision was communicated to the team by NHAI members Rajiv Yadav and D. N. Singh and Chief General Manager V.K. Sharma.
The NHAI has also informed the State that it had cancelled the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for four-laning of the NH 47 stretch from Cherthala to Kazhakuttam. The busy 200-km NH 47 was to be converted into four-lane in two stretches, the first stretch from Cherthala to Oachira and the second from Oachira to Kazhakuttam, at a cost of Rs.4,700 crore.
Official sources said the proposed nine elevated highways in the stretch, as figured in the original DPR, had also been shelved. With this, 50 per cent of the National Highway development work in the State with Central funds has come to a standstill.
Sources said the NHAI team had told the PWD officials that the State could go ahead with a fresh DPR for four-laning of the Cherthala-Kazhakuttam stretch. “They have told us that elevated highways will not be permitted even if a fresh DPR is prepared as the toll rate will go up,'' sources said.
The decision has come at a time when the State was expecting a favourable response from the Centre to an all-party delegation's request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reduce the width of the NHs to 30 m.
The government was all set to hold another all-party meet in Thiruvananthapuram on August 17 to discuss the issue.
The delegation led by Chief Minisiter V.S. Achuthanandan had informed Dr. Singh in May that they were opposed to the implementation of the project in the State on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis as this would lead to collection of toll. A width of 45 metres was too heavy a demand in a densely populated State like Kerala (with a population density of 819 per sq km).
