THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After months of confusion over the alignment, the monitoring committee headed by PWD Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju met on Wednesday and reached a consensus on the alignment connecting Karamana to Vazhimukku.
The final alignment will be made after a joint verification by a team headed by the District Collector on Friday. Some modifications were made based on the public demand. The demands raised by A Sampath MP regarding a stretch at Pravachambalam and by N Sakthan MLA at Balaramapuram were approved by the monitoring committee.
Transport Minister V S Sivakumar, A Sampath MP, MLAs N Sakthan, A T George and Jameela Prakasam, PWD Secretary Manoj Joshi and Chief Engineer T Baburaj attended the meeting.
NH division Chief Engineer Joseph Mathew presented the modified alignment at the meeting. There won’t be further land acquisition at Pravachambalam.
The road constructed during the royal era will be maintained and joined with the new road. This stretch will be one-way. Some changes in alignment have been made at Thycappally and Vazhimukku Palli. In order to minimise land acquisition near Karamana bridge, the approach road will be constructed in the width of the bridge. Against the original plan, the 16 bus bays will be constructed within the 30.2 metre carriageway. The meeting has also decided to spare houses in Mudavoorpara from acquisition. The 30-km NH connecting Karamana and Kaliyikkavila has been stuck on the issue of land acquisition after the inauguration of works by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on November 2010.
The proposal was to develop the 30-km NH connecting Karamana to Kaliyikkavila into a four-lane road with a width of 30.2 m. Of the total 30 km, the first phase will cover almost 12 km from Karamana to Vazhimukku.
The widening of the busy bottleneck connecting Kerala and Tamil Nadu is crucial for the city.