The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Eight roads proposed to be taken up under JNNURM

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Friday, Feb 13, 2009
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Eight roads proposed to be taken up under JNNURM

Staff Reporter

Civic authorities submit proposals for Rs. 80 crore

Only roads with a minimum width of 22 metres considered
User fee for some roads used by commercial vehicles

KOCHI: Eight major urban road transport projects of Kochi Corporation will come up for the consideration of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) on Friday.

The projects for which the civic body has sought support are Thammanam–Pulleppady Road, Gosree-Mamangalam Road, Stadium Link Road, Western extension of the Sahodaran Ayyappan Road, Sahodaran Ayyappan road and junctions, Chilavannur Bund Road, Edappally–High Court Road and its junctions and Kalamassery Municipal Road.

The civic authorities have submitted proposals worth Rs. 80 crore for the road projects. The Central Public Works Department has vetted the proposals on Wednesday. The projects will be placed before the projects approval committee of the Mission on Friday, said Mercy Williams, Kochi Mayor.

Civic officials including Ms. Williams and Corporation secretary Mini Antony are in New Delhi in connection with the clearing of projects.

Several small road projects submitted by the Kochi Corporation were rejected by the Mission authorities stating that only those projects that satisfied the National Urban Road Transport guidelines would be considered. The guidelines specified that only those roads with a minimum width of 22 metre need to be considered for support, said Ms. Antony.

The Kochi Corporation will have to raise Rs. 16 crore as Urban Local Body (ULB) share for the projects. The State government’s share will be Rs. 24 crore and Central government will contribute Rs. 20 crore.

Once the projects are approved by the Mission, the Corporation will convene a meeting of the stakeholders including Cochin Port Trust and the Goshree Islands Development Authority for raising the ULB share, Ms. Antony said.

The authorities are also toying with the idea of slapping user fee for the road projects like Gosree- Mamangalam Road that would be mostly used by commercial vehicles to the Vallarpadam International Container Terminal.

The user fee would be one of the ways to realise the funds invested by the Corporation for the road project, officials said.

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