A section of local residents who handed over their prime land for the widening of National Highway-66 in the district has expressed concerns over the uncertainty over construction of a few service roads along some of the important stretches. They allege that the proposal for service roads, previously approved by the authorities while taking over land, has been excluded for unconvincing reasons.
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Mainly, the residents along the Vadakara-Azhiyoor stretch of the national highway are the complainants who claim that their access to the widened road will remain restricted along many stretches because of the absence of service roads.
Some of the local residents at Kunhippally near Vadakara blame it on the construction of a toll booth on the Mukkali-Kunhippally stretch. The unforeseen height difference of the widened stretch is also reportedly preventing the authorities from sanctioning service roads, they say.
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Taxi operators from Chombal and Azhiyur villages point out that they would be forced to travel several kilometres extra to touch the national highway in the absence of proper service roads at the previously promised spots.
“What we fear is the official endorsement of such a road widening work by the local administrators without considering the previous assurances,” says a 65-year-old merchant from Mukkali. He alleges that a private company entrusted with the road widening work in the area was hardly aware of the service road proposal.
Some local residents add that the interventions made by a few people’s representatives on the issue also turned futile.
On the other hand, an engineer associated with the road supervision work says the increased number of service roads would affect the traffic flow apart from making it an accident-prone route. He also points out that the alignment was planned after thorough studies and the local residents were aware of the risk factors involved in considering their demand.