Stakeholders in the road, metro rail, and water transport sectors have largely welcomed the announcements in Friday’s Kerala Budget to augment road infrastructure, while seeking allocation of adequate funds to increase safety measures in roads, considering that approximately 4,000 people die each year in accidents in the State.
A total of ₹87 crore has been provided for the development and improvement of State Highways and ₹309 crore for major district roads.
The decision to upgrade State Highways at a rapid pace in tandem with that of the National Highways (NH) is a move in the right direction, since the ongoing development of NH 66 and other NH corridors would witness influx of more vehicles, which in turn would spill over into the State Highways and other roads, said C.J. Johnson, a road-safety enthusiast. “In addition, adequate funds must be allotted to ensure road safety, including to the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA),” he added.
The decision is being seen in the backdrop of the expected completion of the six-laning of the Thiruvanathapuram-Kasaragod NH 66 corridor (barring the 16-km-long Edapally-Aroor NH Bypass stretch where NHAI’s DPR for an elevated highway is overdue) by 2026 and works are under way to develop other NH corridors in tandem with the expected increase in container-lorry traffic from the Vizhinjam port.
The State’s financial commitment of ₹2,370.59 crore (mainly by way of writing off State GST and royalty for raw materials) exclusively for three NH stretches – Thiruvananthapuram outer ring road, Kundannur-Angamaly greenfield Ernakulam bypass greenfield NH, and Kollam-Shenkottai greenfield NH, found specific mention in the Budget speech.
While not specifying a deadline, the Budget further referred to the continued monitoring and completion of the ambitious hill highway and coastal highway projects in the State. It also mentioned the government’s intention to eliminate all railway crossings in the State (by speeding up rail overbridge projects), which is in sync with the efforts being made by the Railway in this regard.
A sum of ₹2134.50 crore has been allocated for the Wayanad tunnel project, which is expected to provide a huge impetus for Kerala’s agriculture, trade, and tourism sectors. While referring to upgradation of 17,483 km out of 29,522 km roads under thePublic Works department (PWD) under BM&BC grade,the Budget mentioned of having completed 100 bridges in three years, while another 50 are in the pipeline.
Rates revised
The allocation for the roads and bridges sector is ₹4,219 crore, which included the non-plan provision of ₹3,061.98 crore. Heeding to persistent demand from organisations like the Kerala Government Contractors’ Association, the prevailing Delhi Schedule of Rates (DSR 2018) for PWD works has been revised to DSR 2021. “This would help improve the quality of roads and allied infrastructure and also bring relief to contractors who were ‘underpaid’,” said Varghese Kannampilly, the association’s president.
Referring to the road projects associated with the Sabarimala pilgrim routes, the Budget mentioned about a ₹545.13 crore being spent during the past four years for 121 road construction and maintenance works.
For metro
A sum of ₹289 crore has been allotted to Kochi Metro, while another ₹26.37 crore has been given for non-motorised projects (those like footpath redevelopment works). On its part, the Kochi Water Metro got a total of ₹159.60 crore. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal added that the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode metro rail systems would be operationalised ‘in due course of time’, while preliminary activities of Thiruvananthapuram Metro would be initiated in the 2025-26 fiscal itself.
A sum of ₹133.02 crore has been earmarked for the State’s Inland Water Transport (IWT) sector. This is expected to catalyse efforts to shift in a phased manner a portion of the passenger transport and non-perishable goods from roads to the State’s copious and once-navigable waterways.
Published – February 07, 2025 08:03 pm IST
Source:https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kerala-budget-2025-more-fund-sought-for-road-safety-measures/article69192279.ece