With the work on the Uppidamoodu-Vanchiyoor-Pattoor corridor under the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) getting stalled due to the dispute over the felling of 56 trees, the local residents have approached the authorities insisting that the trees be cut to develop the stretch into a four-lane road.
The residents in the locality, who have been suffering on account of the delay in the road work, have now come forward demanding that the Forest Department give the mandatory permission to cut the trees, a majority of them rain trees.
The local people and project officials took up the issue with Minister for Transport and Devaswoms V.S. Sivakumar who visited the area on Friday to review the work.
When the CRIP commenced six years ago, these trees had a girth fewer than 30 cm, the minimum level required for a plant to qualify as ‘tree.' Project officials point out that the Forest Department's approval would not have been necessary for felling the trees then. The authorities hesitated then to cut the trees down fearing the wrath of environmentalists. Now the forest authorities denied permission to the Kerala Road Fund Board to fell the trees.
“The trees near the Amayizhanjan canal need to be cut or else the stretch will have to be converted into a three-lane one,” project officials told The Hindu . Also, the canal on the stretch had to be covered with pre-stressed double-box-like culverts to allow motor vehicles to pass through.
“We can go ahead with the road widening work only if the trees are cut as the utilities have to be shifted,” the officials say.
The residents have pinned their hopes on the directive issued by Mr. Sivakumar to the District Forest Officer of the social forestry wing to take steps to cut down the trees. Project officials said they had already received permission to cut four trees on the Vanchiyoor-Pattoor stretch.
Three more trees are to be cut in the stretch to take up the work in full swing.
Project officials said a four-lane road would ensure a smoother vehicular flow when traffic got diverted during marches taken out to the Secretariat and the Assembly building.
Traffic experts and the CRIP officials are of the view that there would be a surge in the traffic along the road once the flyover at Melepazhavangadi across the arterial road comes up.
The stretch acts as an alternative corridor when the arterial road gets blocked in the capital. The development of the stretch has assumed significance with the improvement of General Hospital Junction, one of the busiest on the 9.56-km-Airport-Asan Square-MLA Hostel Road corridor.
The General Hospital-Vanchiyoor road, one of the most congested stretches, is to be made one-way to ease traffic, as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR). The development of the Uppidamoodu-Vanchiyoor-Pattoor road will facilitate easy movement of vehicles to Pattoor and avoid chaos near the old Collectorate and Vanchiyoor.
