Thiruvananthapuram: The Karamana-Kaliyikkavila National Highway Action Council has alleged that Public Works Department minister G. Sudhakaran is trying to hoodwink the land owners by announcing that the tendering process towards the four-laning between Pravach-ambalam - Balaramapur-am section on the Karamana - Kaliyikkav-ila NH 66 is being initiated. They have threatened that they will wait for a month after which they would resort to protest.
Karamana – Kaliyikk-avila NH Action Council members were planning to hold a protest meeting on Tuesday when the PWD minister Sudhakaran came out with a statement that the tendering process on the second stretch between Pravachambalam – Balramapuram will be initiated soon. Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was supposed to inaugurate it when they NH Action Council decided to call off their protest in the wake of the latest statement. Mannankal Ramachandran, action council general secretary (Nemom area) told DC that this is a ploy from the part of Sudhakaran to hoodwink the people into believing that the LDF ministry is doing everything for the land owners.
“This is not the first time the PWD minister had come out with such baseless statements. We have decided to wait for a month to see what action the PWD ministry will take. If there is inordinate delay, we will intensify our protest”, said Ramachandran.
But a top PWD official told DC that the action council’s allegation is baseless as the tendering process is progressing without much hurdles except few procedural delays. But still a major stumbling block is on the royal path where rehabilitation of more than 20 families is pending.
“We are planning to open tender by May 19. A pre-bid meeting will be held during first week of May. The state government has handed over '266 crore to district collector for compensation of land acquisition”, said the PWD official.
