KOCHI: The much-awaited Atlantis rail over bridge project got a push with the state government allocating additional funds for acquiring a few of the remaining plots. However, the additional funds to the tune of Rs 11.80 crore will not be sufficient to complete the acquisition.
“The government has given funds only to clear part of the compensation to be disbursed. A few landowners have protested against the delay in disbursing dues and the additional funds will be used to clear it,” said K. J Sohan, town planning committee chairman.
Lack of funds for land acquisition has been the major hurdle for the civic body to take up the project. Though the district level purchasing committee had fixed the compensation amount for landlords, plots are yet to be completely acquired due to paucity of funds.
Though the government had earlier given Rs 48 crore for land acquisition, it was not sufficient. The construction of the ROB with a width of 12 metres and length of 550 metres would alone cost more than Rs 25 crore apart from the land acquisition cost.
Now, with the additional funds, the civic body can entrust the works to the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation-Kerala (RBDC-K).
Meanwhile, civic experts indicate that realigning the bridge would help reduce the cost of land acquisition considerably. If changes have been made to the earlier fixed alignment as per the JNNURM specifications, land acquisition will be at the minimum, they point out.
Once the construction of the Atlantis RoB is over, it is expected to offer another entry point to the city and will help avoid the bottlenecks at the South ROB.
