KOCHI: In a major boost to infrastructure development in the city, the much-delayed development of Seaport-Airport road received a ‘reboot’ with the President of India issuing an order to release 2.49 hectares of National Armament Depot (NAD) land for road construction.
The order has put an end to a 20-year-long wait. Following the order, NAD will hand over the land to the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK), the agency implementing the project.
Industries Minister P Rajeeve, who made the announcement, said RBDCK will pay the Centre Rs 23.06 crore as cost of the land.
“As per the agreement with NAD, in return for the land acquired for the road, the HMT-NAD road will be rebuilt with a width of 5.5m. The state government has been in constant touch with the Centre to speed up the decision-making process. With this, the deadlock over the Seaport-Airport road has been cleared,” the minister said. He said a special board of officials will be formed to demarcate land for the project.
“The state government will take further action to expedite the decision-making process. Steps will be taken to install electric poles, transformers, telephone poles, etc, as part of the HMT-NAD road renovation. New traffic signal points will also be added,” he said.
Recently, at a meeting held under Rajeeve and Public Works Minister Mohamed Riyas, KIIFB approved the `722 crore needed for development of the stretch between NAD and Mahilalayam road.
As part of the development of Seaport-Airport road, the widening of Bharata Mata College - Collectorate road and Infopark-Irumpanam road will be carried out. Though the decision to start land acquisition depends on the final verdict of the Supreme Court, the government has decided to start the road work after sanctioning (levying) the compensation amount.
The Seaport-Airport road project covers a 25.7km stretch from Irumpanam to Kochi airport and has been divided into two phases. The first phase, from Irumpanam to Kalamassery, covering 11.3km, was completed in 2003. The second phase was 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).