Kerala - Kollam   

Row over road development

Staff Reporter

May cause inconvenience to Sabarimala pilgrims

KOLLAM: Pilgrims coming from the Tamil Nadu side to Sabarimala through Aryankavu this season may have to endure much road problems as the Punalur Division of the National Highway on Monday decided not to repair the portion of the National Highway 208 passing through the Thenmala and Aryankavu grama panchayats.

The deadlock in ad hoc talks held in this connection between the representatives of the people and the NH authorities at Thenmala resulted in the development.

The talks were led by the presidents of the Thenmala and Aryankavu grama panchayats K. Sasidharan and Mambazhathara Salim. The team from the NH Division Office was led by Assistant Executive Engineer C.R. Santosh Kumar.

The road portion taken up for repair was the 37-km-long Punalur-Kottavasal stretch of the NH. A sum of Rs.45 lakh has been allocated for the purpose. There is also another allocation of Rs.18 lakh specifically for the repair of NH 208 portion passing through the Thenmala and Aryankavu panchayat areas.

The dispute that cropped up during the talks was that a December 2005 allocation of Rs.3 crore for converting the NH 208 portion passing through the two panchayat areas into NH standard road had not been utilised so far.

The construction was to have completed in September 2005. It may be noted that NH 208 was notified only a few years ago and the Kerala portion of the road is yet to be commissioned on NH standards.

The representatives said that there was no use repairing the road. There should be an assurance on constructing the road as per NH standards and that should commence along with the repair works on the other portion.

This the NH authorities were unable to assure and hence the deadlock.

Mr. Santosh Kumar informed the NH higher authorities of the development. The NH Punalur Division would, however, go ahead with repairing the NH portions of the road outside the territory of the two panchayats.

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