Kerala - Kochi   

Priority to road repairs

KOCHI: Minister for Public Works T.U. Kuruvilla said here on Sunday that the Kerala Highway Protection Act, 1999, would be implemented strictly in the wake of water logging at several stretches of the National Highway.

The Minister was speaking after laying the foundations for a new block of the Civil Station at Kakkanad. He said in many places the sides of the highways had been raised with rubble fillings, making water flow on to the Highway.

He said besides water-logging, there were several other problems responsible for the poor state of roads in the State. The State would need more than Rs.300 crore for repairing roads damaged in the monsoon. It had approached the Union Government for assistance of Rs. 328 crore for road repairs.

The Minister said the Cabinet had approved calling for quotations for road repair works. The quotation route was stopped by the Government following the detection of some anomalies in the implementation of the works. However, in the current situation, the Government had allowed repairs to be taken up by calling for quotations.

The Minister said the Government was also trying to settle the dues to contractors. Government contractors had stopped cooperating with the Public Works Department due to pending payments. If the contractors agreed to the formula proposed by the Government, the dues could be cleared through a loan from banks, said Mr. Kuruvilla.

He said work on several projects, including the completion of the Seaport-Airport Road and the proposals for a new Kothamangalam-Palarivattam link and a road linking Thammanam and Kakkanad, were pending for want of funds.

K. Babu, MLA, presided over the foundation stone-laying ceremony.

The new block of the Civil Station, with built-up area of 4,842 sq. mt. spread over six floors, will be built at a cost of Rs. 2.55 crore. The building is expected to be commissioned in 24 months. All Government offices in and around Kochi will be housed in the new building.

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