Land to be acquired for road widening

The district administration will soon take steps to speed up the land acquisition  process for the widening of the Thammanam-Pulleppady Road.

Announcing the decision here, Eranakulam District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth said initial talks with landowners will begin by next week. A team led by Pareeth and Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany inspected the area to be acquired for road-widening.

“Once the land acquisition is completed, we will carry out the widening works on a war footing,” the Mayor said. The project for widening the Thammanam-Pulleppady Road will be carried out under the  Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme at an estimated cost of `22 crore. As per the project, the 3.4km-long road will be widened to 22 metres.

The expected cost of land acquisition for road-widening is nearly `170 crore. The road-widening is vital as traffic will be re-routed through this stretch once the Kochi Metro Rail work commences. He said the government had allotted `25 crore for the land acquisition.

“We expect that the remaining funds will be released as per the progress of the acquisition process,” Chammany said.

Kochi Corporation Works Standing Committee chairperson Soumini Jain, Town Planning Standing Committee chairman K J Sohan, councillors Leno Jacob, Sojan Antony and Sudha Dilip were the other members of the team that conducted the site visit.

The team started by 11 am from Padma Junction and inspected the area till C P Ummer Road. Earlier, there were plans to implement the widening of the road under the Transfer of Development Rights scheme to avoid delay in land acquisition.