Road development, tourism projects to be completed soon: Minister

June 22, 2021 06:50 pm | Updated 06:50 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Tourism projects and road development in the capital district will be completed in a time-bound manner, Minister for Tourism P.A. Mohamed Riyas has said.

Addressing a press conference at the city Corporation here on Tuesday, the Minister said waterlogging remained a major problem in the city. To find a permanent solution to it, the support of Railways was needed. All government departments needed to work together to address the problem of waterlogging.

Nearly 80% of the work on 11 city roads had been completed, and the remaining would be finished in a week, Mr. Riyas said. These included the Attakulangara-Killipalam road, Edapazhnaji-Jagathy road, and SS Kovil Road-Manjalikulam road.

Cleaning of drains such as Peroorkada-Mannamoola drain and DPI-Jagathy drain was under way. Trees were being cut wherever necessary with the permission of the Forest Department.

Supervision of the Public Works Department works had been entrusted to officials concerned, including the Chief Engineer, and reports submitted to the Minister’s office. Strict action would be taken against officials guilty of lapses in implementation, he said.

Tourism projects in the district too would be completed on time. There were 49 tourism projects for the city, of which 20 were ongoing. An important project that would change the face of the city was the Travancore Heritage Tourism project, tendering for which was under way.

Some of the areas that needed to be prioritised were increasing the number of tourist destinations, even by offering different kids of experiences; making interventions after understanding the possibilities of domestic tourism in the wake of COVID-19; attracting foreign tourists, particularly those from China and Japan who constituted the maximum number of tourists worldwide; giving incentives to those in the sector who were hard hit by COVID-19; and promotion of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation.

Throwing open PWD rest houses to the public was under consideration, he said.

Shanghumughom

A study for a permanent solution to the coastal erosion at Shanghumughom had been entrusted to the Indian Institute of Technology, the Minister said. Construction of the road at Shanghumughom would begin once the sea turned calm.

The Minister visited the city Corporation control room after a meeting with Mayor Arya Rajendran and Corporation Secretary Binu Francis to discuss the emergency repairs to city roads.

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