Bypass Work Likely To Be Delayed | Thiruvananthapuram News – Times of India

Thiruvananthapuram: The construction of Mukkola-Karode national highway (NH) 66 bypass may get delayed further as the mining and geology department (MGD) has sanctioned only two months for excavating soil from a site for landfilling works of the project, said project director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) S Pradeep.
The NHAI had sought five months’ time to excavate 75,000 metric tonnes of soil from 0.471 hectares of land at Perumkadavila in Neyyattinkara.
Last year, the NHAI had sought six months for excavation but only three months were sanctioned from November 2021 to January 2022. After the period, the work was stopped for five months due to shortage of soil.
With the approval given now, they can resume the work but the application seeking permission for excavation was submitted in February 2022.
“In the two-month period, we cannot excavate enough soil and the request given by us seeking two more months was ignored. Even if a fresh request is given, they might take four or five months to process it and it will further delay the project,” said Pradeep.
Due to rain, they could not start excavation so far and it is certain that the required soil cannot be collected in the given time, added Pradeep.
However, the officers of MGD said the restriction was imposed to avoid overexploitation and new permission would be issued by taking into account the nature of excavation.
“There were incidents of overexploitation after permission was issued for excavation. To avoid it, we have given only two months now and it can be renewed when needed,” said MSD geologist M S Rajkumar.
Shortage of soil was the key reason for the delay in finishing a few portions of the 16.3km-long Mukkola-Karode bypass road.
Construction of the road at Thenkavila, Thirupuram and Vlathankara sections can be done only after elevating the portions to the level of the road.
Construction of the project is almost over except the works in the 500-m stretch.
The original deadline for finishing the road was May 31, 2021, but it was later postponed twice to August 31 and now to December 15.