The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Rain affects work on Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 23, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Rain affects work on Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, MAY 22. Intermittent rain is delaying the work on the recently acquired portion of the Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road. It was earlier planned to be commissioned before January 31 and later rescheduled for March.

However, obstacles in land acquisition got resolved only in March. When the work finally began, rain played spoilsport.

Once completed, all long distance private buses would be diverted along this road, which runs parallel to the M.G. Road, reducing the heavy traffic flow on the North and South railway overbridges.

If rain continues and work is delayed, traffic snarls on the M.G. Road are likely to intensify, as schools would reopen next week after the summer vacation.

"Work has been affected because of the rain. Re-metalling and tarring are yet to be over, though the work has been awarded. The central median and footpath curves are ready, so is gravel-filling work and work on the sub-base, base and drains. Two obstacles in between Kadavanthra and the Kathrikadavu Bridge have been cleared. Metal has been stacked up for remetalling and tarring. We need at least two weeks of dry spell to complete the work and another three days for the bitumen to bleed and set," said an official in the GCDA.

A resident in the area has alleged intrusion into his land and the work there could be restarted only with police protection, he said.

A senior officer in the district administration said the onus is with the GCDA to monitor and speed up the work. It has to give us in writing that the work is over and then the RTA will divert private buses through the road, he said.

Sources in the RTO office said all the paper work regarding the route diversion is over. The route diversion was one among the 18-point programmes that had been chalked out at an RTA meeting to streamline traffic flow in the city.

Tender has been given for two-layer metalling. Blacktopping will be done with a 40-mm thick chipping carpet, sources said.

However, problem is likely to exist at the new bridge on the road. Traffic from this two-lane road has to enter the bridge in a single file. This could result in problems similar to those that exist in the North and South railway overbridges.

GCDA sources said land acquisition for widening the bridge will be a major headache. A new footpath too will have to be constructed on one side of the bridge. "The problem will be more acute in the northern side of the bridge, where many structures will have to demolished. Land will have to be taken up to a length of 150 metres, at a width of eight metres (around 30 cents of land). A portion of the recently constructed shopping complex too will have to be acquired. Land could have been reserved in the area through acquisition procedure but for the fact that it was a negotiated purchase in the case of most residents," they said.

Once buses and other heavy vehicles begin using the stretch, the need will arise to declare some sections of the road as no-parking zones. The entrance to the road from Kaloor and the exit at Kadavanthra will have to be declared as no-parking zones.

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