Land acquisition for the reconstruction of the District Court bridge in Alappuzha town will be expedited.
A meeting held in the presence of MLAs H. Salam and P.P. Chitharanjan here recently directed the officials concerned to resolve the existing issues and hasten the land acquisition process. It directed the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) executive engineer to submit the valuation report to the land acquisition authority immediately.
The plan was to begin the reconstruction of the bridge on November 1, 2021. Though the government issued a preliminary notification in 2020 for acquiring 0.4556 hectares in Mullakkal village, further proceedings got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons. As many as 103 shops will have to be pulled down. Officials said that all shop owners to be displaced for the project would be rehabilitated.
The existing court bridge across the Vada canal has six roads merge at two approaches to it causing heavy traffic congestion. It affects the smooth flow of traffic on the Alappuzha-Madurai State Highway. The proposal is to build a new elevated bridge, a set of underpasses, ramp roads and flyovers on either side of the canal, which is expected to help ease traffic congestion in Alappuzha town.
As per the detailed project report prepared by the Public Work Department’s bridges design unit, the flyover is designed as a roundabout with no signals. A Social Impact Assessment report submitted by the Rajagiri Outreach, a wing of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kalamassery, noted the implementation of the project would have huge positive impacts on the locality as well as the overall development of Alappuzha Town.
The project will be implemented by the KRFB at a cost of around ₹100 crore. It will be funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board.
The meeting also discussed land acquisition for the construction of Pallathuruthy Outpost- Kainakary bridge.
District Collector V.R. Krishna Teja, Subcollector Sooraj Shaji and other officials attended the meeting.
