The procedures to acquire private land for the construction of the proposed Kunjali Marakkar memorial bridge connecting Iringal with Vadakara sandbanks will shortly begin in the district.
According to Public Works Department officials, 2.45 acres will have to be acquired within a year to start the construction of the ₹59-crore bridge project.
No landholders have come up with any objection against the fast-track land acquisition process. The department will have to acquire land from 31 persons in the project area.
A small portion of the Vadakara coastal police station’s land will also be used for the project.
The new bridge, to be constructed by maintaining many architectural specialities, will have a length of 564 metres. As it is part of the coastal highway project, the Kerala State Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) will fund the mutli-crore construction, which has already approved the detailed project report.
One of the architectural highlights of the bridge is the sword-based design paying tribute to Kunjali Marakkar. It is the first such bridge project incorporating a unique designing theme as a memorial.
According to officials, the innovative design is the effort of the Design Research Investigation and Quality Control Board under the Public Works Department.
Apart from the unique design, it will be the first bridge in the country which will be fitted with solar power panels for power generation.
The proposal says the solar project will have the capacity to produce electricity worth ₹27 lakh a year. For over a year, paper works have been under way to get approval at all levels.
The Kerala State Electricity Board will also team up with the innovative project for which the DPR had already ben submitted to KIIFB.
Nearly 1,400 square metre area is expected to be covered using solar panels under the grid-connected project.
The east-west direction of the bridge will be used to fit the solar panels to produce the maximum power.
