The work on the second flyover in the city under the Thiruvananthapuram City Road Improvement Project (TCRIP) seems to be suffering from the same fate as the first one - the Bakery Junction flyover - which, after being dogged by delays and controversies, came to reality five years after the work had commenced.
While the piling work for the 510-metre long, 12-m wide Thakaraparambu flyover - that has 13 piers holding the structure - has begun, it is still on a slow mode with the shifting of a major KWA pipe and rehabilitation of traders on the other side of Power House Road yet to be done. TRIDA is yet to identify land to rehabilitate the 40 traders who will be displaced from the Thakaraparambu -Mele Pazhavangadi road.
The idea was to clear a five-acre plot from the Attakulangara UP School compound to set up a shopping mall and bus stand to rehabilitate the traders. However, the proposal is yet to be okayed by the Cabinet. TRIDA Chairman P K Venugopal repeats that the proposal will get the green signal soon. Meanwhile, he prefers to keep mum over the other land proposal that suggested using land of Sree Chitra Poor Home to construct a temporary shed for the traders.
Though the initial plan was to start the work simultaneously from both ends - Thakaraparambu and Power House Road - it did not happen. The 36 shops that were built by TRIDA for the displaced traders in the first phase are yet to be completely occupied. The traders think that they have been fooled, for the shops have no water supply and no chance of good sales, thanks to the location.
‘’The rehabilitation of the traders on the other side will not be easy, for we have learnt a lesson and they will not repeat it. Only after the traders get a proper idea of where they are going to be put up will the 40-odd traders who are yet to be rehabilitated would clear their existing shops,’’ said a trader in the area.
The other major hurdle that has been plaguing the project is the shifting of a 700-mm pipeline along the Power House stretch, where the work has begun. KWA Chief Engineer Sreekumaran Nair said that the department has given the go-ahead for it and the work will soon begin. However, nothing has moved an inch for weeks now.
The concessionaire of the project TRDCL (Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd), meanwhile, is going ahead with the piling works. However, with the government agencies yet to invest their attention and energy in the project, there is very little it can do to expedite the work, a TRDCL official said.