In a bid to develop a sustainable road network which would meet the traffic requirements of the future, the Public Works Department is planning to come up with Kerala Road Policy, draft of which will be an improvised version of the one prepared four years back.
The formulation of Kerala Road Policy will be discussed at the high-level meet of PWD officials to be held at Kochi on Thursday and the meeting would be chaired by PWD Minister V K Ebrahimkunju.
‘’The main hurdle for the formulation of the Road Policy is the fixing of the building and control line. It has to get a political clearance. The rest of the draft has already been prepared,’’ said a senior official of the PWD.
A building line is a line on either side of a highway/district roads from the central line that will have to be left untouched as a building line on either flank. An imaginary line called control line will be created for the roads which will be 45 metres from the central line in the case of the National highways.
‘’ Moreover, for all constructions, a statutory clearance of 3 metres will have to be left from the building line and 5 metres for the control line. Constructions will be permitted only beyond this line. This has to get the political clearance,’’ said the official.
Though a draft of the policy was made in 2009, no follow-up steps were taken to proceed with framing of the policy.
Now, the PWD is planning to make necessary changes in the existing draft and moot the road policy.
The high-level meeting in Kochi will also review the overall progress of various projects being undertaken by the PWD. This include arrangements made for the maintenance of Sabarimala roads and the construction of Kanamala bridge, projects entrusted with Roads and Bridges Department under ‘Speed Kerala,’ progress of preparation of DPRs, constitution of special cell for conservation of heritage buildings and implementation of KSTP-II.
The meet will also evaluate the resurfacing work of NH-47 from Vadakkenchery to Mannuthy at a cost of Rs 14 crore, steps taken for the construction of bypasses at Kollam, Alappuzha and Kozhikode on 50:50 cost-sharing basis and progress in the utilisation of Rs 117.5 crore sanctioned for the coastal highway project.