Kanniyakumari Collector M. Prathap inspecting at National Highway road work near Nagercoil .
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Kanniyakumari District Collector M. Prathap has instructed the National Highways Authority of India officials to complete the work on the 4-lane national highway connecting Kanniyakumari and Kaliyakkavilai before December this year and open it for traffic.He also ordered his subordinates to extend all possible help to the NHAI to accomplish this deadline.While NHAI’s Kerala unit has promptly completed its part of the stretch connecting Kanniyakumari with Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, the work on the portion falling within Tamil Nadu has been dragging for the past several years owing to numerous reasons like delay in land acquisition, legal hurdles etc.Consequently, the poorly-maintained 40 km-long 2-lane highway connecting Vadasery and Kaliyakkavilai is bearing the brunt of thousands of vehicles, including the overloaded multi-axle trucks, using this stretch everyday. With hundreds of potholes all over, 60-minute-long travel for patients being taken to the hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram and the flyers rushing to take their domestic or international flights in Thiruvananthapuram airport, is just dreadful.Despite repeated appeals from the residents of Kanniyakumari, the Department of Highways is in no mood to re-lay this stretch and partial repairing is done only at the points witnessing frequent accidents.The State Highways Department officials justify the delay in complete re-lay of this road with the argument that number of vehicles using this stretch would come down sharply once the NHAI’s 4-lane highway connecting Kanniyakumari and Kaliyakkavilai is completed and opened for traffic.“Since fund allocation for this road (Vadasery to Kaliyakkavilai) has been trivial for the past several years, we can only do patch-up works by filling-up the potholes. If we get sufficient allocation, this road can also be made safe by removing all encroachments on both sides of this road and re-laying the stretch for the entire 40 Km,” they say.Hence, Mr. Prathap, during this inspection at Kulappuram, Vilaathurai, Vaazhvachakottam, Aaththivilai, Thottiyodu, Puththeri, Vazhukkampaarai, Kaappukaadu, Kunnaththur and Eraniel on Tuesday, set the deadline of December for completing the NHAI’s Kanniyakumari – Kaliyakkavilai stretch being laid at the cost of ₹1,041.30 crore.The Collector said rail overbridges, drainages, toll gate, box culverts, pipe culverts, small and big bridges, underpasses, foot-overbridges, bus-stops, service roads, cargo vehicle parking areas etc. are being constructed as part of this project.He asked the NHAI officials to ensure proper draining of rainwater at the starting points of every overbridge on both sides, which often cause accidents with the stagnant rainwater triggering skidding of speeding vehicles.When the NHAI officials explained to the Collector about the obstacles in getting blue metal, sand, M-sand etc., Mr. Prathap instructed his subordinates to coordinate with the NHAI and ensure the free flow of construction materials to this work.“At any cost, work on this all-important stretch connecting Kanniyakumari and Kaliyakkavilai should be completed before December,” Mr. Prathap ordered.Project Director, NHAI, Sachin Kumar, Project Engineer Siva and others accompanied the Collector during the inspection. Published - August 26, 2026 07:30 pm IST
