After nearly a two-year hiatus, the express highway project is back in focus in Kerala.
Public Works Minister Mons Joseph told reporters here yesterday that the draft of the new Road Development Policy was almost ready and it contained a proposal for the north-south access-controlled corridor. Elevated highways and widening of all national highways are other points raised in the draft policy.
Inputs by chief engineers in the State and a Bangalore-based agency had gone into the draft policy, which would be put up for the widest possible discussions in the next few months. The policy incorporates the developments until 2021, covering two five-year plans.
This is the third Minister pushing the expressway project, after a 507-km corridor was mooted by former Minister MK Muneer and later taken by PJ Joseph, who had to bow out of office prematurely.
The alternate North-South Corridor feasibility study by the Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd (RITES) is already before the Government. But that needs updating since it was prepared in the initial stages of the expressway debate.
It was planned with only 19 interchange points for entry and exit of motor vehicles, passing through 890 hectares of agricultural land, 2,900 hectares of plantations and 238 hectares of households. Gas, power supply cables, irrigation canals and even a bullet train would pass through the express highway.
The ambitious road proposal had divided Kerala society, with a minority holding the view that the huge road running through 12 out of the 14 districts would split the State into two. Even Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan held the view.
But a strong section in the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), especially those in northern districts, had switched over the new road concept since it would reduce traveling time between Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram to less than six hours instead of the nearly 12 hours now.
By the latest estimates, the cost of the project would go up from Rs 64bn to 100bn.
.JPG)
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"There are just too many developments under construction that are coming online in the next two or three years," said Waryn, an American executive who moved to Dubai from London. "The supply and demand balance are going to be out of whack and the prices will come down."
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