The process of acquiring land for the construction of a bridge across the Pampa river connecting Kavalam and Thattassery in Kuttanad will be expedited.
A meeting chaired by District Collector A. Alexander on Monday decided to initiate immediate steps to acquire the land needed for the project.
The move comes after an inordinate delay in land acquisition. Earlier this year, a report submitted by a private agency after conducting a social impact assessment was approved. However, a survey later conducted found that some of the land needed for the project was missing from the notification issued, which brought the entire process to a halt.
Officials said land already included in the list and needed for the project would be acquired first, while a new government order would be issued for acquiring the excluded land.
In 2016, the State government allocated ₹30 crore for the construction of the bridge and the approach road. The estimate was later revised to ₹51.5 crore following changes made in the design. The original plan was to acquire the land through direct negotiated purchase.
However, some landowners demanded a change in the alignment. As the alignment was fixed by the Inland Waterways Authority, officials rejected their demand. Later, the Revenue Department ended the move to acquire land through negotiated purchase.
Following this, in November 2018 the department announced that the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act would be invoked to acquire land for the construction of the bridge and the landowners were given time till December 1, 2018, to hand over the consent letters. However, the authorities failed to take follow-up action until the turn of this year.
The bridge will connect the Alappuzha-Changanassery (AC) road and Main Central (MC) road. It will help reduce the distance between Alappuzha and Kottayam by around 9 km along with opening the doors of development to the remote areas of Kuttanad. Once constructed, the bridge and approach road will be 396.21 metres long. The bridge and walkway together will have a width of 11 metres.
