THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd have come under criticism for encroaching the footpath along the Rama Rao Lamp Road towards Museum-Palayam Road. As per studies conducted in 2003 by the Thiruvananthapuram City Road Improvement Project (TCRIP), footpaths need to be at least four metres wide.
The stretch in question now only has a 0.75-metre-wide footpath adjacent to which the corporation is constructing the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) for its Smart City project. The Rama Rao Lamp junction on the LMS-Palayam road was developed in 2003 in contravention of the detailed project report (DPR). Now the corporation is developing the control room which has come under further flak from road developers.
The issue was highlighted by Anilkumar Pandala, former project head and managing director of TCRIP. He has since brought it to the attention of the chief minister and the PWD principal secretary urging them to take steps to correct the mistake.
He told The New Indian Express that during the pendency of the demand itself the corporation built a small transaction counter, sealing all possibilities for land surrender. “Consequently the road was constructed with available land resulting in just a 0.75-metre footpath adjacent to the corporation building. In fact, the counter of the Friends Janaseva Kendra constructed earlier now appears to have been demolished to make way for the proposed ICCC,” said Pandala.
He added that the plans for the ICCC can be revised with little effort. Denying the charges, S Krishna Kumar, general manager (operations) of SCTL, told The New Indian Express that construction on the ICCC structure has yet to start. “Following excavations, the soil study is currently on. How can a complaint be raised even before the construction of the structure has started?
Even though we are only in charge of the construction of the building, it is the PWD who is responsible for land acquisition. All the statutory guidelines are being met by our engineers and there is no encroachment of the footpath,” Krishna Kumar added.