Action council to intensify pressure for Vaduthala railway over bridge

KOCHI: The proposal for setting up a railway over bridge (RoB) at Vaduthala has not made any progress even one year after Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac allocating Rs 35 crore for the project in the budget presented by him in June 2016. The Action Council for Vaduthala Railway Over Bridge, formed to speed up the project, is set to intensify action for the realization of the project in the coming days. “We are planning a pamphlet providing the details of the developments in the past one year of the project. We will present all the facts before the people”, said VS Somanathan general secretary of the Action Council.

The pamphlet will be released in the next one week as a prelude to the public campaign for the project, he added.    According to Hibi Eden MLA, the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation Kerala (RBDCK) has completed a detailed project report and it is now before the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Board for approval. “The process of approval by KIFFB needs to be speeded up”, he said.

Sources familiar with the project meanwhile said a section of the local-level political leaders raising objection to the alignment suggested by the RBDCK, was one of the primary reasons for the delay in the venture taking off. According to Somanathan, the Action Council has been in constant touch with PWD minister G. Sudhakaran and others concerned. The Council has been demanding for the past one year that the RoB work be given to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The Council feels only DMRC would be able to complete the work in a time-bound manner.