Kerala: Central team to visit elevated corridor site

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The site for the Rs 250- crore, 27-km elevated corridor between Muthanga and  Gundlupet  will be inspected by the  officials of the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF) on March 7.  A high-level meeting of both Kerala and Karnataka transport and forest officials will also be held in  Bengaluru on March 6.

Deccan Chronicle had reported on February  13 that a top transport department official had given a presentation before the MoRTH and MoEF officials as per the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre's (NATPAC) 2016 feasibility report on the elevated corridor. Accordingly, MoRTH secretary and a National Wildlife Board member will visit the Bandipur national park and inspect the stretch. A top transport official told DC that Kerala needs the elevated corridor only on a 5-km radius where wild animals, especially elephants, normally pass through the  'elephant corridor.'

"We require the elephant corridor at Muthanga region like in foreign countries so that the man-animal conflict is eliminated.  The officials will visit the Bandipur national park on March 7,"  said a top transport official. Kerala has only 10- km on the total 27-km stretch between Muthanga and Gundlupet.  Karnataka has to consider a 17-km stretch, but Kerala hopes to convince the Karnataka forest department officials on the merits of the project.

The night travel ban along the Bandipur-Mudumalai and Bandipur-Sultan Bathery road stretches was imposed on June 3, 2009 by Mr Manoj Kumar Meena, the then Chamarajanagar district collector.  The vehicular movement through NH 212 (Gundlupet-Sulthan Bathery Road) and NH 67 (Gundlupet-Ooty Road), both passing through the Bandipur sanctuary, was banned from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for protecting the wildlife from speeding vehicles.