The World Bank (WB) is for rebuilding the 24.2-km Alappuzha-Changanassery (AC) Road, which was badly damaged in the monsoon fury and recent floods, by including it in the ongoing WB-aided Kerala State Transport Project Phase II.
The World Bank five-member technical team that will reach the State on Monday for a detailed assessment of the damages to the KSTP corridors due to monsoon fury will have a major say in the proposal to reconstruct the flood-prone AC Road that links the Kottayam and Alappuzha districts.
The team, comprising Highway Engineering and GeoTechnical Experts, will visit all the corridors to assess the damages to the roads, bridges, culverts and retaining walls that have been constructed and where work is progressing in Phase II for detailed assessment and to suggest remedial measures. The technical team will split into two, with one group carrying out detailed inspection from the MC Road in Thiruvananthapuram district and the other from Kasaragod towards South, sources in the World Bank told The Hindu .
The 15 km of the 24.2-km AC Road, constructed in the Phase I of the KSTP, has been badly damaged due to waterlogging in several sections for more than 20 days.
The World Bank’s proposal to reconstruct the State Highway (SH) comes at a time after tenders had been floated for urgent repairs at a cost of ₹9.5 crore to make it motorable.
Already, Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran has said the AC Road has to be rebuilt by increasing the height to prevent waterlogging. Around ₹ 90 crore is needed for the works.
The Alappuzha-Changanassery Road, and seven other KSTP corridors had suffered ‘heavy damages’, as per a Public Works Department (PWD) report submitted to the government.
In KSTP corridors, deep potholes had formed on MC Road along the 23-km Adoor-Chenganoor stretch. The 19-km Thiruvalla-Mavelikara corridor was waterlogged and one culvert was damaged in the floods.
The BC layer has peeled off at several places and potholes had surfaced on the 11-km Pala-Erattupetta road. The 21-km Chitrapura-Punjasserry road is ridden with potholes and the road had been damaged in the rains.
Potholes and waterlogging at some locations have damaged the 31-km Kollam-Ayoor corridor and the 23.6-km Kuttiyadi-Kellur road due to landslips and damage to the retaining walls.
The surface of the corridor from Nedumpoli to Iritty has been damaged and potholes had surfaced in many places.
The World Bank technical team will look into these specific damages cited by the PWD and assess the loss while submitting the report to the World Bank team leader, sources said.
Supported with a World Bank loan of $216 million, KSTP II was kicked off in June 2013 to upgrade 363 km of SH in 10 packages along with improvement of traffic flow and strengthening the road safety management systems.
A proposal to extend Phase II by one year from April 2019 is pending.
