KOCHI: The state government on Tuesday submitted before the Kerala High Court the executive committee meeting of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had cleared funds to the tune of Rs 86.34 crore for construction of a six-lane flyover at Vyttila.The court asked the government to file an affidavit explaining the details of the project, including the time frame for sanctioning the funds.
The state had informed the court the government had declared in the Budget henceforth the construction of all flyovers will be taken up under the new mechanism - KIIFB. Since the government was against introducing tolls for flyovers, the final stand was the government will construct all flyovers, the statement said.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had earlier submitted it will have no issues in constructing new flyovers provided it was allowed to recover the cost by collecting toll from the users. However, a petition was filed by Francis Manjooran of Vyttila challenging the stand of the government. The petitioner sought directive to the NHAI to start and complete the construction of the flyover as per its original proposal.
He said the government stand was illegal. The state government had no authority to prevent the NHAI from maintaining or developing national highways.The government had decided to construct the flyover on the National Highway as it was against the policy of collecting tolls from the bridges. However, the government was not in a position to undertake such a project, he said.
The petitioner said the highway between Aroor and Edappally had already been handed over to the NHAI and the government had no right to take over the construction of the flyover. The proposed project included in the state budget wholly dependent on the KIIFB. The petitioner said KIIFB was already in debt trap and was unable to fulfil its commitment.