Wayanad: Potholes, heaps of slush and creaky boulders left by the re-construction of the Sulthan Bathery-Thaloor Road have made lives miserable for thousands of commuters and proved a bane for the ruling CPM in the district.

The people of the area, irrespective of political differences, launched an indefinite hunger strike at Koliyadi on August 1, demanding an assurance from the state government on speedy re-tendering and immediate completion of work.

The stretch is a prominent inter-state road linking National Highway 766 (Kozhikode-Kollegal route) with the Kozhikode-Ooty Road. 

The dispensation is now facing 'graft charges' of allowing a Tamil Nadu-based construction company to go 'scot-free' as the contract was terminated without completing even half of the work; that too after the lapse of two-and-half-years of hectic activity, which apparently spoiled the road which was in a good condition.

As per government records, the contract was sanctioned to M/s Prathien Infrastructure Company in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for an amount of Rs 31.05 crore for the 8-km stretch, allotting Rs 3.88 crore for each kilometre.

The amount was allotted through KIIFB (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund) on the recommendation of former finance minister T M Thomas Isaac in November 2016, a source said.

A detailed project report (DPR) was prepared in 2018, the tender was floated in 2019 and work commenced in 2021.

'Massive destruction for construction'
“Before the works started, the road was not that bad, which could have been improved with minor patchwork and a single layer of tarring,” said Radhakrishnan, a workshop mechanic at Sulthan Bathery, residing at Madakkara.

“We don’t know who had demanded such a big project...” he added.

 The reconstruction works started in February 2021 for converting the 8-km stretch of the road into one of 'international standards' at a cost of Rs 31.05 crore at a stipulated time frame of two-and-half-years.

After extending the deadline for another two months, the contracting company failed to complete even half of the stretch.

Amid mounting public ire, ruling CPM leadership made a futile attempt at pointing a finger at I C Balakrishnan of Congress, the sitting MLA of the Sulthan Bathery constituency, alleging that it was the intervention of the MLA which resulted in the termination of the contract. Meanwhile, Balakrishnan hit back: "They never knew that it was Congress that controlled the affairs in the state while CPM ruling the state."

Commission Raj
According to the action committee convener Shilju Paul, the people of the region had been waiting patiently for the last few years for both political fronts to finally ensure justice for them, but in vain.

“Both camps act in collusion; we have no other way as both allowed the contractor to go scot-free after subjecting the public to toil in the slush in monsoon and dust in summer,”, he said.

“During tendering, the contractor may have quoted the lowest, but it is up to the government to assess the competency of the company to carry out such a mega re-construction work which involved a lot of earthworks, construction of 15 culverts and one bridge apart from realigning of curves which is yet to be completed,” he said.

“Now with the contract being terminated, it seems the people are being thrown in the middle of the slush while both the camps might have received their share of bribes,” he alleged.

The action council leaders pointed out that for the last three years, everyone including political leaders, parties, and officials of all departments concerned has made some quick bucks as kickbacks for executing each stage of the work, draining out the maximum from the contractor. “There should be transparency in the amount of money released to the contracting company at each stage of completion of work,” he said, adding that, the company after bagging its profit by subcontracting the work to other minor players, now expressed willingness to back out from the work,” he alleged.

“All the elements concerned acted together terminating his contract as these elements would be getting another share of bribe from the new contractor while retendering the work,” they pointed out.

Hinting at the commission Raj, Shilju said: “Students, teachers, visitors to hospitals and the drivers and staff of vehicles depend on the road regularly."

Years-long agony of travelling
Most of the daily passengers at the two ends of the road are now taking circuitous routes as they have developed various physical ailments due to regular travelling while those residing in the villages of Madakkara and Koliyadi, at the middle stretch of the road, are trapped. “I have to undergo an ayurveda treatment as my body joints were damaged due to regular traveling”, said Maymol Anto, a teacher at Government LP School, Chulliyode. “Now most of us from Sulthan Bathery instead of travelling 7 km distance from Bathery to Chulliyode, is travelling all the way to Ambalavayal from Bathery and from there to Chulliyode, traveling 15 km, more than double of the usual distance one way,” she said.

“Even then I can save my health which is more important than distance and time,” she added. “Life is so miserable for pregnant women and those in the menstrual period to travel on the road, as after each trip we feel such pain that the entire body has been torn into pieces,” she added.

KIIFB under fire
According to advocate T M Rasheed, convener of Nilgiri-Wayanad Highway and Railway Action Council, who inaugurated the indefinite agitation on Tuesday, the poor condition of the road is due to the anomalies in KIIFB system under which there is no proper mechanism to monitor works.

“With countless works underway under KIIFB monitored by a few officials, there is no system to assess the progress of the work on a daily basis,” he added.

“The works of private contractors under KIIFB is not undertaken properly while only the works of Uralungal Labour Contract Society backed by the ruling regime are executed,” he claimed.

Hinting at the multiple ‘sub-contracting’ of work, Rasheed said instead of the firm doing the work directly, now the fourth sub-contractor is carrying out the work and all three had siphoned off a share of profit,” he said.

Sufficient fund is there in KIIFB but there is no mechanism to monitor the work. Not only the contractor but also the government agencies including KSEB, Kerala Water Authority, and three-tier panchayats not at all executing their share of works related to the project in time," he pointed out.

“In an era of hi-tech 1 km road can be completed in one day whereas despite sufficient funds in KIIFB, the road is still at the beginning stage,” Rasheed said, adding that now there is not even a proper DPR, and no funds allocated for widening of the road created much confusion initially. This is the way most of the KIFFB projects are underway in the state of which the chairman is the chief minister and vice chairman is the finance minister; the PWD department, he said, has no significant role in KIIFB projects.

However, Sulthan Bathery MLA I C Balakrishnan of Congress told Onmanorama that he had approached the Chief Minister and PWD minister to ensure the timely completion of the work.

“Once the termination notice was issued as per guidelines, it was repealed and issued again, without my knowledge,” he said.

“There were no irregularities in the allotted work but the system failed in monitoring the progress of the work in each phase,” he added.

“The contract should have been terminated much earlier due to poor execution,” he said, adding “even after extending time for another two months, the contractor failed to complete the project.”