THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The stone-laying ceremony of the Karamana-Kaliyakkavila National Highway development was held a year ago. The lackadaisical attitude of the MLAs of Nemom, Kovalam, Kattakkada, Neyyattinkara and Parassala, who were assigned to meet to study into the issue of alignment, is the latest hurdle in the much-delayed NH-widening works. Nemom MLA V Sivankutty, Kovalam MLA Jameela Prakasam, Kattakkada MLA N Sakthan, Parassala MLA A T George and Neyyattinkara MLA R Selvaraj are yet to submit a report to PWD Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju. The MLAs were given CDs of the alignment of the 12-km stretch, from Karamana to Vettamukku. The MLAs who were assigned to clear the air are yet to meet on the issue. The Federation of Residents Association in the Nemom Sector (FRANS) is planning to take out a march to the residence of each of these MLAs. “In an all-party meet convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on October 3, the MLAs were given the CDs to resolve the issue related to the alignment. The delay on the part of the MLAs has hit the road-widening works. The MLAs must understand the travel woes of thousands of people,” FRANS general secretary Mannankal Ramachandran said. The government had decided to go ahead with 30.2-metre widening in the same meeting convened by the Chief Minister. Fair compensation was also announced to remove the hurdles in land acquisition. The design for junction improvement too was asked to be completed soon. But no progress has been made in the works so far. After the inauguration of road-widening works , performed in November 2010 by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, the works were stalled following protests from the local traders. With Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s intervention, survey of the 12-km stretch was recently completed. The proposal was to develop the 30-km NH connecting Karamana to Kaliyakkavila into a four-lane road with a width of 30.2 m. Of the total 30 km, the first phase will cover almost 12 km from Karamana to Vazhimukku.
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