Four-lane NH at Attingal town to be a reality next month
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The work on the much-awaited widening of the National Highway(NH) stretch at Attingal town is fast nearing completion. Attingal municipality officials said that the four-lane road will be inaugurated in the second half of August. The widening of the road from Poovampara to Moonnumukku had to face several hurdles, which led to inordinate delay in completion of the work.
The widening of the stretch began two-and-a-half years ago. Unlike other road projects, widening of the 3 km stretch into a four-lane road is a model project as it has been taken up by the Attingal municipality voluntarily with the help of traders and local residents. The traders and local people gave up their land free of cost for the widening work, which could provide a lasting solution to the seemingly never ending traffic congestion on the highway connecting Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam.
The new stretch with a central median is expected to resolve the long-running issue of the roads remaining chock-a-block since those from the northern and central parts of the state headed for the state capital and vice-versa ply the route.S Kumari, chairperson, Attingal municipality, said that efforts are on to commission the stretch in August itself. “One round of tarring has been carried out on the entire stretch. Right now, the new footpath to be built with handrails is being paved with interlocking tiles. After completing this, another round of tarring will be carried out. So we expect the road work to get over within a month. We are also focusing on beautification of the stretch by keeping plants on the median. Another plan is to relocate the streetlights from the roadside to the median to ensure that the stretch is fully illuminated at night,” she said.
Since the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had junked the plan to develop this NH stretch and instead decided to build a new parallel bypass, the move to widen the stretch was dropped earlier. It was in this context that the municipality came forward to widen the stretch with the help of landowners by acquiring limited area of land. Though it was taken up earlier, several hurdles came in the way. Earlier, then Works Minister G Sudhakaran had directed that the work should be carried out only after discussing it with him as many works were being undertaken without the knowledge of the government. However, the issue was later resolved.
Around 11 cents of land were acquired from private landowners for widening the stretch. However, the 3km stretch does not have a uniform width since the acquisition was carried on the basis of the land voluntarily given up by the landowners. Revive Construction Company Limited is the contractor for the `27 crore road widening project.Meanwhile, the land acquisition proceedings for the 10 km NH bypass are underway.