Shashi Tharoor tells NHAI to speed up

Thiruvananthapuram: Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP, has asked officials of the National Highways Authority of India, the State PWD and the airport to urgently decide on dismantling the ramp to the international airport and facilitate further progress of work on the nearly Rs 2,000-crore Kazhakuttom-Karode bypass. NHAI officials have assured Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP, who visited the project site, that the first phase bypass from Kazhakuttom to Mukkola would be completed by September 2017 and the second phase from Mukkola to Karode in the next two years.

The major hurdle to the bypass is the ramp from Chakkai to the international airport and the work cannot take off unless the ramp is demolished. But the State Government, which spent Rs 5 crore on the ramp five years back, was not inclined to its demolition.    A meeting, headed by the Chief Minister, had entrusted an expert committee, headed by National Transportation Planning and Research Centre director B G Sreedevi, to find ways to resolve the logjam.

The committee comprised members NHAI official and project chief engineer Venkita Krishnan, airport director George Tharakan, PWD (Roads and bridges) superintending engineer Baby John asmembers and senior road planner Sreenivasan as the advisor.  Their expert opinion is that there is no alternative to dismantling the ramp. Integral to the bypass completion also is the construction of a flyover to Technopark and several underpasses near campuses of UST and Infosys.

NHAI officials, who reviewed the condition of Thiruvallom old bridge, told Dr Tharoor that it was free of any structural weakness. They accepted Dr Tharoor’s proposal to construct a foot overbridge, taking into account problems faced by the people in Poonthura, Puthenpally and Kumerichantha areas.    The detailed project report for the bypass was drafted 40 years back and the project have encountered several obstacles unforeseen when it was first conceived, officials told Dr Tharoor.