Even as little progress has been made in establishing full-fledged seaport connectivity of Seaport-Airport Road in Ernakulam district of Kerala, the deadlocked land acquisition process to extend the corridor from HMT Junction to the international airport at Nedumbassery has got a shot in the arm, with the Naval Armament Depot (NAD) expressing willingness to surrender land for the extension project, in return for the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) widening HMT-NAD Road.
Hassles associated with acquiring 5.30 acres owned by NAD and four acres owned by HMT have been cited as reasons for the inordinate delay in the airport extension of the corridor. Sources in the RBDCK, which built the 11.50-km HMT Junction-Irumpanam stretch of Seaport-Airport Road 17 years ago and handed it over to the PWD later, exuded confidence that the NAD-owned land would be handed over in the coming months.
“We hope HMT too surrenders the land necessary for the airport extension, since it was once government-owned land and had been handed over free of cost to the agency for industrial activity which did not take place as envisaged. The State government is making efforts to reach a negotiated settlement, although a litigation is pending before the Supreme Court. In addition, the KWA ought to relocate a pipeline on HMT-NAD Road,” official sources said.
The social impact assessment (SIA) for the airport extension is over. The notification process under Section 11(1) of the Land Acquisition Act is under way. It will be followed by Revenue officials issuing compensation for people whose plots were acquired.
From HMT Junction, the airport extension will pass through Mahilayalam and Chowara, before ending near the airport.
Congested junctions
Even as the RBDCK widened the 2.5-km HMT Junction-Bharata Mata College stretch into four-lane, most other junctions on the rest of the stretch that ends at Irumpanam are severely congested, despite vacant space being available. The worst is the plight of Collectorate Junction, where bellmouths on all four sides are extremely narrow, with the result that traffic congestion is the norm.
The PWD, which owns the road now, too has made little headway in widening the rest of the stretch where lorries carrying containers, oil, chemicals, and construction materials dominate traffic.
