Mining dept issues notice to NHAI

Thiruvananthapuram: After Perumkadavila panchayat issued a stop memo to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) against excavating a private land unscientifically, the mining and geology department served a show-cause notice to the NHAI on Tuesday for exploitation in the land allocated for excavation.
Due to this, NHAI was forced to stop the Mukkola-Karode NH-66 bypass works in the absence of soil for land filling.
The NHAI had received permission for excavation in 0.471 hectares of land at Palkulangara in Perumkadavila panchayat from the mines and geology department in August.
The excavation was done for land filling at Thenkavila, Thirupuram and Vlathankara for the construction of the Karode-Mukkola bypass of the national highway. Of the 16.3-km bypass, only 500-m stretch of the bypass works remain to be finished.
“The NHAI has excavated 25% of the buffer zone of the land allocated for mining and a show-cause notice has been issued. Suitable action will be taken according to their response on the notice,” said deputy director of mines and geology department Raghavan M.
He also said that NHAI has to pay three times royalty fee, which is Rs 20 per tonne, for the over exploitation done. Permission for further mining will have to be taken after due discussion, he added.
As much as 75,000 metric tonnes of soil is needed for land filling for making the stretch of the bypass.
In the stop memo issued by the panchayat a few days ago, it was alleged that NHAI excavated the land by violating all safety norms.
Meanwhile, NHAI project director S Pradeep said that the soil was taken for a development work of the nation and it was done absolutely in line with the norms.
“Hope the issue will be resolved soon,” he added.