National Highway realignment puzzles public
Realignment affects KMML oxygen plant and important buildings in Chavara.
Kollam: The occupants along the National Highway 66 in Kollam condemn the move by authorities in realigning the highway from Titanium Junction to Thattassery alleging it to be unwarranted.
The realignment, which is much deviated from the already existing marks, affects Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML) oxygen plant and several buildings of historic importance in Chavara.
But the authorities responsible for addressing the apprehensions of the public have failed to clarify on the new alignment.
People raise the question, left unanswered, why the alignment once finalised has been changed. The first alignment was mostly through revenue land while the new stone markings are primarily through house plots and business establishments.
The purpose of the new alignment, even as the public raised no complaints or opposition against the previous, is still unknown.
"The 110-year-old GHSS Chavara, which is preserved by the archaeology department, will have to compromise nearly ten rooms with the new alignment," the school's alumni association chairman Chavara Surendran Pillai told DC.
"Here is where ONV, Sambasivan, Sooranad Kunjan Pillai, Baby John and many more eminent personalities studied. The Govt. LPS in Kamankulangara, which is even older, will be shovelled completely."
The KMML will lose its oxygen plant located near to the highway. Earlier, the alignment was through the east side while the new marking is inside the KMML compound.
"The KMML has given a letter to the government for reconsidering it. However, the highway authorities are adamant on the new alignment," R. Sumeethan Pillai, NH land acquisition deputy collector, told DC.
"The new alignment is part of acquiring land equally on either side, except for spaces like bridges and such constructions."
Meanwhile, residents allege that unlike the earlier alignment, the land has been marked disproportionately. They had given a hundred representations to the district collector but in vain. The district collector Dr S. Karthikeyan was not available for comment.