KOCHI: The two-decade-long wait for realisation of the second phase of the key Seaport-Airport Road project continues as the city grapples with heavy traffic congestion on its arterial roads. While the Centre has ordered to release 2.49 hectares of National Armament Depot (NAD) land for the road construction in March last, not much headway has been made since.
The Seaport-Airport Road project covers a total of 25.7 km from Irumpanam to Kochi airport and has been divided into two phases. The implementing agency Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala Ltd (RBDCK) completed the first phase, from Irumpanam to Kalamassery, covering 11.3 km, in 2003 and handed over the same to the PWD in 2020.
However, the implementation of the second phase, divided into three sections — HMT Road-NAD Junction to Mahilalayam Junction Road (section A), Mahilalayam Junction to Chowara (section B), and the stretch from Chowara to Airport Road (section C) — has been put on the backburner, with the land acquisition process going at a slow pace due to fund shortage and dispute over land ownership.
“In the 2.7-km-long stretch from Kalamassery HMT Road to NAD, the construction activities have been completed in the available land (1.5 km). However, the proposed land belonging to NAD and HMT is yet to be handed over. While the land belonging to NAD is ready for acquisition, the state government is yet to hand over the required fund (Rs 23.06 cr). Also, a case regarding the ownership of the HMT land is currently pending before the Supreme Court. Though the court gave permission to the state government to remit the cost of land (Rs 16.32 crore) to be acquired from HMT for the development of the Seaport-Airport Road in a nationalised bank, so as to get the land available for the project, the government is yet to allocate the fund,” sources said.
Similarly, land acquisition process is still progressing in the 6.5-km NAD Road -Mahilalayam section. “KIIFB is entrusted with the same,” they added.
In the one-km stretch from Mahilalayam to Chowara, the RBDCK has already completed the construction of two bridges across Periyar. In the final section from Chowara to airport, covering a stretch of 4.15 km, the RBDCK is yet to receive the government nod, even for land acquisition. “RBDCK has sought administrative sanction for the construction of the road, including land acquisition. We are awaiting sanction from the government,” the agency said in its reply to a query filed by V C Jayendran, a resident of Tripunithura. The agency has already submitted a Rs 210-crore proposal.
Meanwhile, the RBDCK made it clear that there is no ‘existing’ proposal to include the stretch from Karingachira to Seaport under the scope of the project. “A 45-m road is being constructed in the second phase. However, the stretch from Irumpanam to Bharat Matha College is narrow and results in traffic congestion. The KMRL, though, has widened the small stretch from Collectorate to Infopark as part of the metro construction activities. The PWD should widen the rest of the stretch, where the land is already acquired, to a four-lane road,” he said.
THREE SECTIONS
The second phase of the project has been divided into three sections — HMT Road-NAD Junction to Mahilalayam Junction Road, Mahilalayam Junction to Chowara, and the stretch from Chowara to Airport Road