Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in his first major intervention after he returned from the US, has asked the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to complete the restoration and renovation works at flood-ravaged Pamba by the first week of November, before the start of the Mandalam season on November 15. TDB president A Padmakumar assured the chief minister that the deadline would be kept.
The directive was issued during a review meeting convened by the chief minister here on Monday. As had been decided on August 29, the chief minister stressed the need to make Nilakkal the base camp for Sabarimala pilgrimage. However, the chief minister said that adequate facilities - toilets, resting places, parking lots, refreshment centres- should be created for pilgrims while converting Nilakkal into the base camp.
TDB chief said that Nilakkal base camp would be expanded to accommodate an additional 2,000 pilgrims this season. As it stands, the camp has space for only 2,000 pilgrims. Padmakumar said that the plan was to accommodate 10,000 pilgrims at a time at the Nilakkal base camp soon. All the shops and trading centres at Pamba will be shifted to Nilakkal.
The TDB authorities told the meeting that arrangements would be made to store 60 lakh litres of water at the camp daily. As part of this, the meeting decided to drill six bore wells in Nilakkal and two borewells at the Pamba bus stand. Besides, water will be conveyed to Nilakkal from the Kerala Water Authority's Pamba and Seethathode plants.
The August 29 meeting had decided to ban construction of concrete buildings in Pamba and start building two Bailey bridges for pilgrims and also for transporting goods. Instead, the plan is to construct a walkway in Pamba with prefabricated roofing and this project is estimated to cost Rs 3 crore.
During the earlier meeting it was also said that private vehicles would not be permitted to proceed to Pampa from the next Sabarimala pilgrimage season. Pilgrims would be transported in KSRTC buses from Nilakkal to Pampa, and back. The government would have to employ the services of 80 buses regularly for taking pilgrims from the base camp. Vandiperiyar and Erumeli would be the other two camps for pilgrims.
PWD principal secretary Kamalavardhana Rao informed the meeting that the Pamba-Thriveni bridge was safe. However, an expert team will also inspect the bridge to ensure that the bridge had not weakened after the flood. This bridge had remained submerged under slush nearly four feet thick during the August floods. Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran said that construction of a higher bridge would start once the season is over.
State police chief Loknath Behera, Devaswom secretary Jyothilal, water resources secretary Tinku Biswal, forest principal secretary Dr V Venu, TDB members K Raghavan and K P Sankardas, and Devaswom commissioner N Vasu were present during the occasion.
