Kerala: Norwegian official to arrive today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a follow-up action to one of the agenda items during CM Pinarayi Vijayan's visit to Norway, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute director Dominik H Lang will visit the state to examine and suggest solutions to bottlenecks in some of the ongoing projects and proposed projects.
Reaching the state on Thursday, he will visit the sites of the Wayanad twin tunnel project, Idukki Gap Road, Varkala tunnel and coastal areas of the capital to study sea erosion. NGI had agreed to work with the state to find solutions to disaster mitigation, coastal erosion and the Wayanad twin-tunnel project construction. KIIFB has already sanctioned Rs 2,140 crore for the construction of the twin-tunnel project connecting Kozhikode and Wayanad, which was proposed as an 8km project in 2020. At present, NGI's assistance is being utilized by Indian Railways for the construction of tunnels. Railways are using Norway's technology -in which presence of rocks can be detected even at a depth of 7km- in Ladakh. Since there is cooperation between both countries, CM had requested NGI's assistance for the Wayanad twin-tunnel project.
He will also visit the Gap Road, which has been frequently witnessing landslides, largely owing to illegal rock quarrying in the name of road widening, forcing authorities to issue travel bans many times. The state disaster management authority has been seeking a permanent solution to this issue on Gap Road.
NGI is already cooperating with several institutions in the country and has also come up with modern ways to find a permanent solution to the problem of coastal erosion, a major concern for the state. He will visit regions affected by coastal erosion in the capital district. He will also visit Varkala tunnel system, which was part of an inland waterway system built by erstwhile Travancore kingdom for establishing trade routes through water.
During CM's Norway visit, NGI had assured its assistance in flood mapping, which is crucial as far as the state is concerned. The government had seriously taken up flood mapping as a future measure in the wake of 2018 floods. NGI also assured the state that working with state's universities and research institutes can also be considered after the team of experts visit Kerala.