TRIVANDRUM, 29 July — The Kerala Cabinet is expected to give the green signal to a 61 billion rupees expressway project that could change the face of the state.
The 540-km-long six-track expressway, which will connect the state’s northern and southern tips, is one of the biggest infrastructure development projects in the southern state.
State Public Works Department Minister M.K. Muneer said the draft project report prepared by the New Delhi-based Lee Associates, a subsidiary of the Lee Company in Canada, has been submitted.
Today it takes 17 hours by road from Kasargode, the state’s northern tip, to its southern tip, Trivandrum. But once the expressway comes into being, the distance could well be covered in a matter of six hours.
“We have planned it in such a manner that if the proposal is cleared, the earliest it could take to complete the work is five years and the maximum is 15 years.”
The entire project would be operated on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis.
“The project will have 17 connecting links to the expressway from the 11 districts in the state. The expressway would not pass through the Alappuzha, Idukki and Wayanad districts,” said Muneer.
This proposal — to be undertaken as six different projects — would be open for an international tender, in what is seen as a major investment project to be showcased at the forthcoming Global Investors Meet here this year.
Around 3,200 hectares of land is to be acquired for the project, only 245 hectares of which is developed. The rest of it is agricultural land.
“If people owning the land are willing to contribute for free, they would get a share in either the work or a toll charge,” said Muneer. The draft project report is now in the hands of the road board committee headed by Chief Minister A.K. Antony.
Once the Cabinet’s approval is secured, Lee Associates would be asked to prepare the final project report. Muneer added that several international companies, and even the Malaysian government, had evinced interests in the project.
Search for bodies resumed
KUMARAKOM — Navy divers assisted by firefighters, police and volunteers resumed their search yesterday for bodies of victims of a ferry accident in a southern Indian lake, police said. A total of 29 bodies were recovered on Saturday after the accident in Vembanad Lake in Kerala, police official S. Gopinath said, revising downward a previous toll of 65.
He said the dead comprised 15 females, thirteen males and a six-month-old baby. He could not say how many people, if any, were still missing after the accident.
On Saturday Gopinath had said the boat was carrying passengers three times its actual capacity. Officials speculated the ferry was carrying as many as 250-300 people. The state government has launched a judicial inquiry into the mishap.
Surviving passengers said the boat sank about 35 minutes into the journey.
“The boat tilted to a side suddenly and passengers panicked, running around,” one panic-struck survivor said.
“The passengers rushing around resulted in the driver of the boat losing control and it turned turtle within five minutes,” the survivor said, adding that the ferry was in the middle of the lake when it sank.
“Some of the passengers who jumped into the lake were rescued by fishermen returning from their morning catch,” another passenger said.
A large number of survivors were also rescued by a dredger which was exploring for live shells in the deep lake.
