Kerala: National Highways Authority Of India not keen on underpasses'
Thrissur: The number of deaths due to accidents on the 38-km stretch between Mannuthy and Karukutty four-lane National Highway tollway on Mannuthy-Angamali NH has touched 537 from 2,756 accidents since the opening of the tollway in 2011 till December 2017. But NHAI officials are allegedly not keen on taking corrective measures by building necessary underpasses on this stretch and for the new Mannuty-Vadakkenchery six-lane NH tollway.
A study was conducted by Nervazhi, an organization of human rights and RTI activists based in Mannuthy by collecting data after filing RTI applications in Puthukkad, Ollur, Kodakara, Chalakudy and Koratti Police Stations on accidents on the Mannuthy-Karukutty stretch. The study has revealed that out of the 537 persons who died, 167 pedestrians were crushed to death as they were crossing the NH through zebra lines. According to this data, there are accidental deaths on this stretch every five days.
“We had been demanding more underpasses like those in Coimbatore-Avinashi NH in Tamil Nadu on the Mannuthy-Angamali tollway. And the fact that the NHAI did not construct enough underpasses is a major security lapse,” P. B. Sateesh of Nervazhi said. Instead of learning a lesson from their lapses which caused so many deaths, NHAI officials were still not keen on constructing underpasses on the Mannuty-Vadakkenchery six-lane NH tollway, he said.
On October 30 last year, in the all-party meeting held at the Collector’s chamber in Thrissur, the majority of persons including Thissur MP C. N. Jayadevan, Ollur MLA K. Rajan and representatives of all political parties and local residents had sought an underpass at accident-prone Mulayam Junction near Mannuthy on the six-lane toll way which the residents there had been demanding for the past five years. But in the meeting, NHAI officials led by project manager L.S. Rajpurohit backed a minority that consisted of the officials of a temple situated near the Mulayam Junction and some shopkeepers who were against the underpass.
