The Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company (TRDCL), the concessionaire of the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP), is to approach the government seeking extension of the project to complete the remaining works, including the Thakaraparambu flyover.
The government had been unable to acquire land in several crucial stretches and hand it over to TRDCL even as the deadline for completing the 27.68-km of road (18.62 km in the second and 9.06 km in the final phases) taken under the second and final phases of CRIP is to end on November 30.
“Close to 20 per cent of work will remain pending in various corridors when the deadline expires on November 30. Of this, only 10 per cent pertains to road development. We are ready to complete the remaining work in 90 days, except the flyover if all impediments are cleared and the roads are handed over to us,” sources in TRDCL told The Hindu . The project officials said it would take another two years to complete the 510-metre long flyover that had 13 spans. The flyover will not take off in the near future as traders had not been rehabilitated.
From the beginning of the CRIP project, delay in handing over land, cutting trees, shifting of utilities, and the negative stand of the civic authorities had affected the works in almost all the corridors. Sanction was given to demolish the existing bridge at Murinjapalam to construct a new four-lane bridge on the busy Pattom-Medical College road only two weeks ago.
The government had not been able to complete land acquisition in the Kowdiar-RR Lamp road (Corridor I) that was completed first. Land from the Kanakakunnu palace for providing ‘free left' from Kanaka Nagar to Vellayambalam was still in the proposal stage.
In the LMS-Attakulangara stretch (Corridor II), TRDCL was yet to get land from the Devaswom Board Buildings.
TRDCL had skipped work on the 260-metre stretch extending from Pazhavangadi to East Fort. The shops behind the city bus stand needed to be shifted as the drains on the stretch also needed to be strengthened.
The delay in constructing the drains on the Model School junction-Thampanoor stretch, constructing the culvert and shifting of the temporary bus shelters had been stumbling blocks in Corridor III extending from Museum Junction-Bakery Junction to Thampanoor and Overbridge.
In the Corridor IV, extending from MLA Hostel-Asan Square to Airport, the government had not been able to acquire and handover 300 metres of land from the Church near Pattoor. As a result, TRDCL had not been able to widen the busy road and the stretch remained a traffic bottle neck. Land acquisition was yet to be completed in the Choorakkattupalayam-Power House stretch falling under Corridors V and VI.
A building close to the second entrance of the Thiruvananthapuram Central had been a stumbling block for completing the work. The land near the timber depot at Kaithamukku was yet to be acquired and transferred. Sewage lines had to be laid in the road leading from Punnapuram to Sreekanteswaram. The trees along the Vanchiyoor-Old Collectorate road had been preventing TRDCL from taking up work on the Amazhinjan canal and installing the double-box culvert.
In Corridor IX stretching from Pattom to Ulloor via Murinjapalam, TRDCL had been awaiting the allocation of land near TRIDA complex at Medical College. An idol near the taxi stand at Medical College had not been relocated.
Land from the SUT Hospital had not been acquired at Pattom. The vehicles dumped by the traffic police was another hindrance. The delay in completing the sewage lines in the Ulloor-Kochulloor stretch.
In the 1.02-km bypass (BP I) stretch from Attakulangara to Enchakkal, via Sreevarahom, TRDCL had been demanding compensation as the roads were dug up for constructing 17 manholes after the final black topping was given.
