Blockade planned

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fed up with the lagging of works, the Karamana-Kaliyikkavila National Highway Action Council is all set for vigorous agitations. Come October, the action council is planning to organise a road blockade from Karamana to Kaliyikkavila to protest against the authorities’ apathy towards the road-widening works. They also plan to lay a siege to the office of the Chief Engineer in charge of the works.After the inauguration of the road-widening works in November last by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, the works were stalled owing to protests from local traders. Following Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s intervention, survey of a 12-km stretch got completed recently. According to the action council, the Chief Engineer in charge of National Highways was unnecessarily delaying the works in the name of a ‘Social impact study’.“We will meet the concerned ministers soon and demand action. Several agitations are planned in the coming month,” action council president Mohan Kumar said.The traders who oppose widening are against the proposed width of 30.2 m. They wanted to limit the widening to 22 m. However, the action council pointed out that the National Highway (NH) connecting Kerala and Tamil Nadu is a busy bottleneck which needs widening.The proposal was to develop the NH connecting Karamana to Kaliyikkavila into a four-lane road with a width of 30.2 m. Of the total 30-km stretch, the first phase will cover almost 12 km from Karamana to Vazhimukku.The NH Action Council had recently met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, PWD Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju and Transport Minister V S Sivakumar to express their displeasure over the inordinate delay in the works.