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Kerala News

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Kerala / The New Indian Express

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Environmental nod for Outer Ring Road project in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The long-delayed Outer Ring Road (ORR) project has got a fillip with the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) formally granting environmental clearance for the ambitious project. The move comes close on the heels of a recent Supreme Court order that ex-post facto clearance may be granted under conditions. Meanwhile, the land owners who surrendered their land for the project have threatened to boycott both the upcoming local body and assembly elections to protest the delay in the disbursal of compensation. According to official sources, the minutes of the meeting by SEAC granting environmental clearance will be soon tabled in the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) meeting to be held next month for the final approval. Making things worse a section of land owners have moved the High Court challenging the land acquisition notifications issued without a detailed project report or environmental clearance. The validity of the 3(a) notification issued for the land acquisition for the project expired earlier this month. There is an active stay order and the government cannot cancel the 3(a) notification when there is an active stay order. Hence the validity of the existing notification will not be gone, said an official. As many as 6,500 land owners have handed over their property for the ORR project. Chandramohan Nair, convenor of the action council representing the landowners, said that though the state claims Kerala to be extreme poverty-free, the present status of the landowners are worse than extreme poverty because the government failed them. The government issued a 3D notification for around 11 villages and the land owners should be given compensation immediately. We will boycott the elections if they dont disburse the compensation immediately, said Chandramohan Nair. Meanwhile, the alignment revision which aims to minimise extensive hill cutting along the 77 km stretch is under way and is expected to be finalised only by December 2025. When contacted, PWD secretary K Biju told TNIE that it will take some time to finalise the DPR. The approval of DPR is crucial for releasing compensation for the land owners. The project, estimated to cost Rs 8,398.46 crore, is being implemented under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The land acquisition cost, initially estimated at Rs 1,800 crore, has now nearly doubled to `3,800 crore as of August 2025. Under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, beneficiaries are entitled to 12 per cent annual interest on delayed compensation from the date of land possession to the date of payment further increasing the financial burden on the state and central government. The ORR project got the Union governments in-principle approval in 2019.The 77-km stretch from Navaikulam to Vizhinjam via Thekkada passes through 31 villages. As per the plan, the six-lane road will be 45 m wide and will have 10 m-wide service lanes. Recently, the NHAI marked the road as NH 866.

29 Nov 2025 8:50 am