Vattiyoorkavu to don a new look soon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The development of Vattiyoorkavu Junction, one of the busiest and congested junctions in the city, has gained momentum, finally.  Vattiyoorkavu MLA K Muraleedharan said he got an assurance from Works Minister G Sudhakaran that the detailed project report  (DPR) for the development works would be prepared soon.

The assurance came in the reply to a submission raised by the  MLA in the Assembly recently. "Executive engineer of the Works Department's Thiruvananthapuram Roads section has been entrusted with the DPR preparation. An investigation estimate is being prepared and the tender procedure would begin soon," the MLA said.The DPR will be prepared on the basis of the investigation estimate. Major roads leading to the junction would also be developed. They include the Peroorkada-Mannarakonam stretch, the Mannarakonam-Vazhayila road and the Sasthamangalam- Mannarakonam stretch.      

The KIIFB had sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the development works in the 2017-18 fiscal. An amount of R45 crore was sanctioned for land acquisition alone."But the works got delayed owing to the lack of coordination between the departments of Revenue, PWD, LSG and finance," Muraleedharan said.
The Kerala Road Fund Board has been selected as the special purpose vehicle to execute the project.

Land acquisition

About 1.8366 hectares are required for the junction development. A total of four acres of land has to be acquired for developing the three roads with 20 m width.The land acquisition hit a roadblock recently with the government deciding to change the agency which would acquire the land. Earlier, the Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority (TRIDA) was entrusted with the land acquisition. But a review meeting convened by the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) last week decided to assign the tasks of land acquisition and road development with a single agency - the Works Department.

TRIDA chairman C Jayan Babu told Express that he was waiting for further orders from the LSG Department. "After receiving the minutes of the meeting convened by the ACS, we sought the opinion of the LSG. We were in the preliminary stage and no acquisition was done so far," he said. Jayan Babu said the PWD minister's statement in the Assembly that the TRIDA received 30 pc of the amount required for land acquisition was incorrect. "That was a mistake. We have wrote to the Works Department that we did not receive any money," he said.