The years-long struggle of Mulavukad islanders for a service road parallel to the Container Terminal Road has eventually borne fruit with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) initiating tender formalities.
The move comes in the wake of renewed protests by the Mulavukad Janakeeya Vikasana Samithi, and more than six months after the agency wrote to District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla expressing its willingness to construct the 2.60-kilometre service road between Bolghatty and Kattathukkadavu parallel to the Container Terminal Road by taking it over from Kerala State Construction Corporation Limited (KSCCL).
In the letter, the NHAI also conceded the demand of the people to construct the service road by replacing pipe culverts with concrete culverts. It further said the agency was waiting for the green signal from its headquarters for constructing the road in a single phase instead of two phases as was originally planned.
Earlier this year, the Samithi had laid siege to the NHAI office at Kalamassery in protest against the continuation of the agency’s alleged apathy towards the demand for the service road. The project had witnessed many false dawns over the years rallying the residents of Mulavukad panchayat unlike for any other cause.
“Soon after the construction of the Container Terminal Road, the NHAI tried to block our access to it only to give up in the face of stiff protest. Then they tried to forcibly start collection of toll during the midnight of August 2015, but was driven back by a massive public protest. Even now, the NHAI has not withdrawn the cases filed against many of us for taking part in the protest,” said T.S. Benny, vice president of Mulavukad grama panchayat and an active participant in the protests of the Janakeeya Vikasana Samithi.
Though the NHAI had set up a toll plaza long back for the collection of toll on Container Terminal Road, it could not be operated as the protesters had made it clear more than once that toll collection would be permitted only with the launch of the construction of the service road.