THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | April 01, 2016: District Administration has decided to source earth from various government lands, including the Kerala State Nirmiti Kendra campus at Akkulam, for widening Kazhakoottam-Mukkola stretch of the National Highway.

District Collector Biju Prabhakar said that 5,30,000 tonnes of land required for the project will be sourced from all possible avenues, including KSNK, campus, District Collectorate campus and some other government-owned properties.

The District Administration and the greens headed by architect G Shankar were at loggerheads for quite sometime over the issue. The red earth being mined from the KSNK campus at Akkulam was stopped a few weeks ago after the greens opposed it citing CRZ violations.

The District Collector alleged that Shankar had a personal agenda in the issue due to his attachment to an old building built by him on the KSNK land at Akkulam.

"PWD had reported that the 28-year-old unused building is in a dilapidated condition and lacks stability. Already 48,000 loads of red earth has been excavated for the NH project and another 52,000 remains which will be mined soon. The dilapidated structure stands on the land identified for further mining," Biju Prabhakar said.

The state government had earlier exempted the mining activities on government land for NHAI work from environmental clearance.

On the greens' allegation of violation of CRZ norms, the Collector said, "The CRZ norms are not a hassle for the construction of NISH or for several private residential apartments which are more close to the lake. Also, I suspect their motive since they do nothing to prevent the contamination of the lake by apartments and commercial establishments."

Greens' demand rejected

The government and the NHAI have also rejected the fresh demand of the greens to plant 7,800 trees on the stretch.

"This is a new demand which is unacceptable. A meeting attended by the then Chief Secretary and environmentalist B Sugathakumari on October 5 2015 had decided to cut 4,700 trees along the Kazhakoottam-Kovalam stretch provided the NHAI plants 50,000 tree saplings on the Sainik School and Kerala University's Kariavattom campus," said NHAI project director R Venkitakrishnan.

"The NHAI is also entrusted with the upkeep of the saplings for the next three years. The total project cost is Rs 1.1 crore and we've already handed Rs 37 lakh to the Social Forestry Wing of the Forest Department to start the planting," he added.

The NHAI said around 450 trees on the stretch has been retained. Retaining of trees and planting of new spalings will be undertaken only if the rainwater doesn't fall from the trees on to the roads and is proper drainage facility for rainwater is available.

(Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/)