Hardly had the row over toll on Ponnurunni overbridge subsided, another protest is brewing a few kilometres away at Mulavukad, where residents’ clamour for a service road parallel to the Container Terminal Road, is all set to hit boiling point yet again.
With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) going ahead with the construction of toll plaza on the Container Terminal Road, that moment is not too far away. The islanders had blocked the construction in the past insisting that collecting toll without providing them with a service road was out of question. “Following the protests, NHAI allocated Rs. 15 crore for the service road following which a meeting attended by the District Collector was held. The idea was to execute the project through the Goshree Islands Development Authority,” S. Sarma, MLA, told The Hindu . The minutes of the meeting were to be made into an agreement but for a few changes, he said. A meeting to take stock of the project would be convened shortly. Anyway there was no question of allowing the collection of toll without readying the service road, he said.
His stance reflected the sentiments of islanders organised under the Mulavukad Janakeeya Vikasana Samithi, which is set to meet next week.
“We have decided to go the whole hog if NHAI backtracks on the promise of service road. The completion of the toll plaza will not be allowed unless there is considerable progress in the proposal for service road. There is no point in denying us something, which residents of other panchayats along the Container Terminal Road like Moolamppilly, Kadamakkudy and Cheranalloor already enjoy,” said M.F. Fahad, convener of the Samithi.
M.P. Praveen
