Kerala - Kochi   

Plea to take over Mattancherry bridge

KOCHI: The State Government must take over the Mattancherry BOT bridge and order a high-level probe into the expenses incurred in constructing it, the Kerala Samsthana Janakiya Pratirodha Samity has demanded.

The demand comes in the wake of a Comptroller and Auditor General report assessing that the bridge was worth only Rs 13 crores, at a time when the builders Gamon India said that they spent Rs 30 crores for the construction. Francis Kalathumkal, the West Kochi convener of the Samithy said that thousands of vehicles pay exorbitant rates as toll for using the bridge – the first BOT bridge in the State. The Samity and the Senior Citizens’ Forum of West Kochi have called upon the people of West Kochi to constitute protest committees at the local level, to resist the imposition of toll. Another demand is to permit smaller vehicles to use the old bridge at Mattancherry.

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