The Hindu : Work on Karamana-Killipalam Road to be expedited

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Work on Karamana-Killipalam Road to be expedited

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 21 . The widening of the busy Killipalam-Karamana stretch of National Highway 47 into a 25-metre-wide four-lane road is being expedited by the Public Works Department (National Highway) and the new stretch is to be thrown open for vehicular traffic by April-end.

The work has got an added momentum with the district authorities regulating the traffic along the stretch and introducing one-way from this month. "The deadline for completing the widening work, which has been dragging owing to a host of problems, had been revised from March to April.

As the new bridge across the Karamana River would not be completed in the next three months, the authorities have decided to commission the renovated stretch till the bridge by April. Of the three spans of the new bridge, the first would be concreted within two weeks. PWD(NH) sources said a minimum of one-and-a-half months would be needed for completing each span of the bridge. The work on the new bridge that is being built on the left side would in no way affect the vehicular traffic, said the sources.

The work on the widening of the stretch, one of the major bottle-necks on the NH 47 passing through the State capital, was delayed because of wrangles over land acquisition, delay in removing overhead electric lines and transformers as well as re-laying the lines of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA). The sources said that the district authorities were yet to remove two buildings on the stretch, including one near Karamana Junction.

The KWA is yet to complete sewerage work on the stretch and the Kerala State Electricity Board is yet to remove the electric posts near Killipalam Junction. The construction of a drain on one side of the road from PRS Hospital to Karamana is to be taken up by the PWD (NH). According to the sources, the KWA would be able to give water connections to consumers only when the work on the drain was completed.

The first phase of construction of the Rs. 4.15-crore four-lane Killipalam Bridge has been completed. The tender for the second two-lane bridge would be fixed by March 15. The old bridge would be demolished and the second two-lane stretch of the bridge would be constructed in its place. The sources said although the KSEB, KWA and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had been asked to remove the cables and pipeline by February 6, the agencies had not done it.

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