Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must be used to odd demands from people who meet him, but even by that standard a Kerala all-party delegation’s demand to stop national highway development must rank as exceedingly strange. They went on to request that the width of NH-47 and NH-17 passing through Kerala should be no more than 30 metres. At a time when other states are constructing four-lane or six-lane highways of 60 metres, this is hard to digest. The logic of Kerala politicians is that land acquisition for widening roads is almost impossible in a state with high population density. Indeed, it had raised a similar alarm as soon as the National Highway Development Programme was launched. Accordingly, the National Highways Authority of India decided to limit road width in Kerala to 45 metres, three-fourths of the width in other states.
The state then signed the mandatory state support agreement with the NHAI for developing 416 km of NH-47 and 368 km of NH-17. When land acquisition for these projects began, it attracted the ire of locals. There were protests by isolated groups in various parts of the state. Foreseeing trouble during the local self-government polls scheduled for this year and the Assembly polls next year, the government and the Opposition joined hands to oppose the project.
Politicians may not be the most courageous of people, but it is hard to believe that they cannot see how much damage this vote-driven move will do to the state’s development prospects. The present condition of almost all major roads in Kerala is pathetic, to say the least. According to a study commissioned by the PWD, traffic density along NH-47 was 66,000 passenger car units in 2005. Five years later, it has grown to more than one lakh PCU. According to the Union surface transport ministry, any road with traffic density of more than 35,000 PCU must be upgraded to four lanes. By this standard, NH-47 must be at least an eight-lane road now.
When the Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal is commissioned in September, the situation on NH-47 and NH-17 will be much more chaotic. Thousands of containers will move in and out of Kochi and mess up an already bad traffic scenario. It is indeed sad that elected leaders responsible for encouraging development are turning a blind eye to a great opportunity to make the state more prosperous.
