KOZHIKODE: When it comes to the development of the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road, it seems that promise and renege seem to have attained a special bonding. The latest impediment in line is the delay in convening a meeting of the District Level Purchase Committee (DLPC). It was at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Thiruvananthapuram on July 11 that it was decided to hasten the procedures for the widening of the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road. Accordingly it was decided that a meeting of the DLPC would be convened in two weeks for land value fixation. However, the district administration officials say that they are yet to fix a date for the meeting. “Before convening the DLPC, the administration has to send notices to around 2,000 land owners. The process includes a lot of process and as such we have not yet fixed the date for the DLPC meeting,” says District Collector C A Latha.As per the decisions taken at the high-level meeting, the entire land acquisition process would have to be completed before tendering the work, by January 2015. With regard to land acquisition, the meeting decided to complete the land value fixation of the entire land by August 20 and acquire the land on a fast track basis through negotiable purchase. However, given the delay in the convening of the DLPC, the entire process is set to stall again. M P Vasudevan, general secretary, Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road Action Committee, says that they will bring the issue to the notice of the district collector and other officials concerned. “There should not be any further delay in land acquisition, as the current government notification will expire in April 2015. It was decided that the DLPC would be convened in two weeks for land value fixation, but nothing has been materialised,” he says.
The Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road is among the total of eight roads that will be developed in the first phase of the Kozhikode City Road Improvement Project (KCRIP). Though the tendering process is going on for the development of six roads under the KCRIP, uncertainty continues over the widening of the 8.4 km-long Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road in four lane.
After inordinate delay, the development of the road was again put on track last month after a series of protests under the aegis of the action committee, alleging official apathy. Other than deciding to hasten the procedures, the government has also announced that the initial fund allocation of `100 crore for the road development will be released after including it in the supplementary budget and that the rest of the funds needed will be allotted in the next state budget.