The Central government has cleared the second phase of the Kerala State Transport Project, Public Works Minister M. Vijayakumar said here on Sunday.
The Minister told the media that Centre cleared the project after much pressure from the State. The World Bank had earlier backed off from funding the project and the Centre had indicated that the second phase could not be considered because the State had exceeded its borrowing limit.
The Minister said the project envisaged an outlay of Rs.1,327 crore, of which 20 per cent was to be met by the State government. (The major roads proposed to be developed under the project include the Chengannur- Ettumanoor-Muvattupuzha stretch of the Main Central Road, Punaloor- Ponkunnam-Thodupuzha stretch of SH 8 and the Kasaragod- Kanhangad road.)
The Minister said steps would be taken to ensure the quality of roads under construction. Several roads to Sabarimala would be developed on condition that the contractor should guarantee a minimum life-time of five years for the roads.
A lot of wastage was occurring in the Public Works Department because of poor quality of construction. This could be corrected only through establishment of quality control divisions.
He said all the damaged PWD roads were being repaired and patchworks were fully complete in respect of roads in a few constituencies of Palakkad district and Mala in Thrissur district.
