THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The tardy progress in shifting electricity poles and the lack of coordination among various agencies have slowed down the widening of the road from the AKG Centre to General Hospital Junction that forms part of the Airport- Palayam road corridor under the City Roads Improvement Scheme. The effort to coordinate various departments for the roads project suffered a major setback with the notification of elections to local bodies. The coordination committee, which used to meet every week, has not convened for the last one month. Project managers said this was because a large number of officials in various departments were deployed on election duty.

The transfer of key officials in various departments, including the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), is also responsible for the lack of coordination. The delay in conveying the decisions taken by the coordination committee down the administrative hierarchy is another factor which has hampered the project. "In the absence of responsible devolution, even an overseer can hold up the work on a major road corridor for months together," says a project administrator.

Officials said the shifting of utility lines on the AKG Centre- General Hospital Junction stretch was delayed by technical objections. The newly-transferred KSEB officials are reported to have insisted that the existing poles be replaced with A-type towers. Project supervisors pointed out that the towers would cover the entire width of the footpaths, posing a problem for pedestrians. The negotiations have been dragging on for more than a month.

Project managers said efforts were on to streamline the functioning of the coordination committee, now that the elections are over. The committee is scheduled to meet here on Monday to sort out the outstanding issues related to land acquisition and shifting of utility lines.

The land acquisition for the widening of the Aarattu Road from the SP Fort Hospital to the Eenchakkal Junction is also likely to be taken up at the meeting. This crucial component of the roads project has been held up for months due to the delay in reconstructing sewerage manholes and acquiring the required land at Eenchakkal and the junction near the west entrance to the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple. The piling work of the proposed flyover at Bakery Junction has also been bogged down for months. Officials said the work was expected to pick up with the arrival of four new piling rigs equipped with bigger tools and longer travel to penetrate the hard rock strata at the site. Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority Chairman P.K. Venugopal admitted that there had been a temporary setback to the project. He said moves were on to prime the administrative machinery and put the project back on track.

"With the elections behind us, we hope to sort out all the problems and push up the pace of the work on the various components", he said.

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