Kerala - Alappuzha   

Kumaranasan Study Centre to be established soon, says Chandy

VITAL LINK: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy unveils a plaque marking the laying of the foundation stone for the Kumarakodi bridge near Haripadin Alappuzha on Saturday.

ALAPPUZHA: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the government will ensure funds for a study centre and research institution on poet Kumaranasan at Kumarakodi near Haripad, where the poet was laid to rest after meeting with an untimely death in the adjacent Pallana river in 1924.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for a Rs.32.8-crore project for the Kumarakodi bridge and the 4.8-km Karuvatta-Kumarakodi road at the Kumaranasan Memorial in what was the United Democratic Front (UDF) government's first official programme here on Saturday, Mr. Chandy said the study and research centre was a long-standing demand that did not materialise due to paucity of funds.

However, the UDF government would ensure that there would be no shortage of funds for the project.

The 47-metre Kumarakodi bridge, which will be constructed across the National Waterway through the Pallana river, too was a demand of the public for the last several years while the Karuvatta-Kumarakodi road would reduce the travel distance for residents of Karuvatta and Kumarakodi to Haripad by about 8 km.

The bridge would require Rs.30.8 crore, while the approach roads and the Karuvatta-Kumarakodi road would take about Rs.2 crore. Nearby residents had already agreed to donate their land free of cost to the government for the approach roads, Mr. Chandy said.

Lamenting that the general trend in the State was that all developmental projects lagged on inordinately, Mr. Chandy said his government would strive to change this. The Kumarakodi bridge project, which was the first memorandum he had received as Chief Minister and which was approved in the first Cabinet meeting of his government, would be completed in a time-bound manner, he said, adding that Minister for Cultural Affairs K.C. Joseph would soon visit Kumarakodi to discuss the setting up of the Kumaranasan Study Centre.

Mr. Chandy also announced that the Kumaranasan Memorial, which was constructed at a time when the Cultural Affairs Ministry did not exist, would be handed over by the Public Works Department to the Cultural Affairs Ministry.

Public Works Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju said the bridge would be completed in one year, with a ‘countdown' board to be erected near the project site so that the public could monitor the daily progress of the work.

Union Minister of State for Power K.C. Venugopal received the land documents for the project site while Ramesh Chennithala, MLA, presided over the ceremony. District Panchayat President Prathibha Hari, District Collector P. Venugopal, Chief Engineer T. Baburaj and others were present.

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