The Hindu Business Line : Highway to development

A WINDING road in Kerala's Idukki district. With the commissioning of the hill highway project in the State, time taken to reach production centres will be reduced, giving farmers free and easy access to markets. — K. K. Mustafah

The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) has just concluded a study for the second phase of the hill highway project, passing through the high ranges in Kerala, suggesting that the implementation of the project be taken up in stages due to large development costs.

The study pointed out that the development of the second phase of the highway for a route length of 627.40 km from Palakkad to Thiruvananthapuram would cost around Rs 31,087 lakh. Considering this, it suggested that the development works could be taken up district wise and within districts.

The order of priority would be developing the missing links first and then upgrading major district roads to State highways standards. The report also recommended upgrading other district roads to State highway standards and finally developing the existing State highways to match requisite standards.

Important for economy

Mr V. Rajagopal, Chief Project Co-ordinator, NATPAC, said it was only in 1997 that the Government listing major control points en route declared the hill highway as a state highway.

It was then decided that the work on the highway would be taken up in two phases. The first phase from Nandarapadave in Kasargod district to Chandra Nagar Junction in Palakkad town has already begun, he said.

As the government had accepted the NATPAC report pertaining to the selection of alignment for the development of the Phase I part, a study was carried out for the second phase as part of the one-year programme of the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment. The economy has a strong foundation in agriculture and hilly regions play a predominant role in the economy accounting for the lion's share of production of cash crops and spices and the like.

The forest wealth of the State is concentrated in the hill regions with sparsely populated settlements scattered far and wide. Consequent on the economic compulsions in the aftermath of the Second World War, large-scale migration of population from Central Kerala to the hilly regions of the State resulted in far reaching changes in the socio-economic scenario of the hilly regions. With the commissioning of the hill highway, the distances between various production centres will be reduced thereby enabling farmers to move their produce to markets without any hindrance.

Enormous time will also be saved as the new highway offers better connectivity to the feeder roads. For instance, the distance from several tea estates in Wynad district of Kerala to Kochi will shrink by as much as 90 km.

The project is designed to provide an alternative corridor traversing the economically backward rural outback in the State. The Kerala Forest Research Institute has also carried out an environment impact assessment on the project as it involved negotiating the protected virgin forestlands straddling the Western Ghats.

Saving time and money

A panoramic look at the pattern of transport development in the State showed that it follows mostly a north south direction along the western corridor. Though there has been limited cross integration of these networks covering the midlands also, the picture is entirely different in the hill districts. Consequently the people in the region incur heavy travel expenses resulting in tremendous wastage of scarce resources.

The huge economic loss can be reduced considerably by developing a north-south corridor along the eastern regions.

The hill highway will also play an important role in accelerating development of the State's tourism. However, the problem of opening the missing links through the forests has to be addressed seriously.

The aim of the study was to identify the most feasible route for the hill highway considering the control points specified in the Government Order declaring the road as a State highway in 1997. In addition, the study also considered the alternative routes suggested by PWD engineers and NGOs in addition to the independent assessment of the study team.

The scope of the study was confined to carrying out inventory and road conditions surveys along the routes given in the 1977 Government Order showing control points of the hill highway.