Meet today to tackle hurdles in NH project

THRISSUR: A meeting of the various stakeholders will be held at the chamber of the district collector A Kowsigan on Tuesday to discuss the various issues delaying the completion of the widening of the Mannuthy-Wadakanchery stretch of the National Highway passing through Thrissur and Palakkad.
The meeting convened at the initiative of Ollur MLA K Rajan is expected to discuss the compensation to be paid to the people staying near Kuthiran area, who are reportedly facing threats due to the blasting operations for constructing tunnels on the National Highway in that area.
The people of the area have threatened to block the tunnel construction work unless paid compensation for the damage being caused to their houses. The officials of KMC construction, which is the main contractor for the roadwork, agreed to pay some compensation after an joint evaluation of the extent of damage caused due to blasting. "We are taking steps to avoid any major damage by monitoring the extent of vibration using seismographs. But we are ready to pay the compensation to the affected people, if there are any, provided the assessment of damage is being done by a team of experts as well the representatives of the panchayats, the contracting firm as well as the police,'' said a company official.
He said protesters are blocking the tunnel work even after signing agreements to pay compensation. "They blocked the work for five days from August 20, then the agreement was worked out on August 25, but they resumed blockade on August 27 and on August 29,'' he said.
Rajan said the demands of the people for compensation are justified. "I would press for it. The agitation of the people of the area was suspended after I held local level conciliation talks, and promised them to get compensation,'' he said.
The tunnel construction firm said they had already 340 metres of the proposed 1 km long tunnel on the left side 150 metres on the right side. We should be able to complete the work by January, if there are not many obstructions. About 500 people are working in three shifts to complete the construction. Two boomers are engaged in the drilling work of the 10 metre tall tunnel. We have regulated blasting work avoiding the late hours, but people are now demanding the blasting hours to be reduced further,'' said an official of the Pragathi Engineering and Rail Project Limited, who are constructing the tunnels.
The road contractors said they are facing acute shortage of earth to fill the work. "The work will get stalled if we did not get the permit the mine earth from plot,'' said the company official.
Three underpasses have been added to the highway stretch at Don Bosco centre, Pattikkad and Wadakkanchery. The designs of the underpasses have to be approved by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) including the cost part. "We submitted a design for the underpasses and are waiting for the approval from NHAI. It might take another month when that process of design is completed,'' said the contracting company's official.
There are also issues of laying the water pipelines which are damaged by the road construction work. People on the roadside are also demanding steps to eliminate water-logging on the sides of road under construction.
The collector said the meeting convened by him will work out programmes for the smooth completion of the construction of the road before the deadline of March 31 next. The concerns of the people of the area would also be addressed, Kowsigan said.