Kerala HC gives Kochi Corporation four months to fix S.A. Road stretch

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Kochi Corporation to finish rectification work on a 3.10-km stretch of Sahodaran Ayyappan Road (S.A. Road), running from the Vyttila metro station to Manorama Junction, within four months.

The direction was issued by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V.M. Syam Kumar. The Corporation told the Bench that the estimate for the work had been revised upward from ₹10 crore to ₹12.55 crore, since the amount originally sanctioned would not cover the work.

The court observed that there was no justification for the delay on account of a revised estimate that had not been communicated earlier. It noted that when the matter was last taken up, no contention had been raised that the government-sanctioned amount needed to be increased because of a revised estimate.

The Bench referred to the report of the Corporation's superintending engineer, which stated that the ₹10-crore estimate had been prepared using the specification rates of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Those rates included GST compensation, the contractor's profit and overheads as applicable, and the total estimated cost of the proposed work came to ₹10 crore inclusive of GST.

The court disposed of the public interest litigation, which had raised concerns about hazardous road conditions along the metro corridor caused by the sinking of road surfaces near metro pile caps. The petition said such conditions had led to accidents and loss of lives.

While hearing the matter, the court had earlier directed the State to immediately identify, level and permanently rectify all road surface protrusions and uneven portions around metro pillars. It had also ordered effective safety measures, including high-visibility warning signage, reflective road markers, rumble strips and impact-absorbing protective installations around metro pillars at all identified hazardous locations.