THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite promises by the city corporation to install street lights along NH-66 bypass before the local body elections, nothing has happened so far. In January last year, former Mayor K Sreekumar had given the assurance to install streetlights in the first reach of NH bypass stretching from Kazhakootam to Mukkola, near Vizhinjam. The pleas of the Technopark employees to provide proper lighting also fell on deaf ears.
Now, the residents and motorists, who are left to suffer at night, have vested their hopes on the newly-elected Mayor S Arya Rajendran. Earlier, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had made it clear that installing and maintaining streetlights are the responsibility of the city corporation.
“We are only contracted to maintain the garden on the median. The installation of street lights is not our job. We can give a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the local body but we can’t install lights on our own,” said P Pradeep, NHAI project manager.
The absence of lights has long inconvenienced those who commute in between Technopark-phase II (Infosys and UST global) zone and the Technopark main campus. P Ramesh Nair, a techie, said it was difficult to move in and out of the park at night due to ongoing construction of the elevated highway in front of the IT park.
“Proper lighting is also important for the women techies travelling at night,” said Ramesh. Meanwhile, sources in the corporation said the pandemic and ensued lockdown had played a spoilsport for the installation work. The former Mayor had proposed the project in January last year and the whole project got shelved due to the lockdown.
Sources said the project is still on and the new council wouldimplement it soon. Newly elected Mayor Arya said she would study the project in detail and would soon come up with a solution. “I will take it up as a priority project for speedy implementation,” she said. The NH-66 bypass from Kazhakootam to Mukkola is slated to be a major artery of the district.
Though Technopark employees urged to install streetlights on the median, their pleas have gone unheeded