A wait of 14 years for a link road less than a kilometre long may sound outrageous.
But that is exactly how long 13 families uprooted from Moolampilly for the rail and road connectivity for the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal had to wait for the critical link road to their rehabilitation plots. District panchayat member Elzy George will inaugurate the road on Sunday at 10.30 a.m.
The link road will connect the riverside rehabilitation plots located at a depth of nearly 8 feet to the nearby bridge on Container Terminal Road. This critical gap in access has been posing a major hurdle to the evictees in bringing construction materials to the plots and has remained unaddressed despite inspections by several officials, said a release issued by Moolampilly Coordination Committee.
About five members from the 13 families had died without benefiting from rehabilitation owing to this lacunae. It was in February 2008 that 22 families were forcibly evicted from their homes at Moolampilly, and the government of the time was forced to declare a rehabilitation package in the face of a strong protest. The package guaranteed drainage and power, water, and road connectivity to the plots.
Since the declaration of the package, four governments had changed in the State, and the district had seven different Collectors. The link road issue was raised at the rehabilitation monitoring committee chaired by the District Collector time and again but to no avail, the release said.
