After long wait, Kumbalam-Thevara bridge dream inches closer to reality

Inland Waterways Authority expected to give NOC eight years after budgetary allocation

- KRISHNA KUMAR KE @Kochi

THE Kumbalam-Thevara bridge, a long-pending demand which would substantially reduce commuting time between the city and its southern outskirts, is finally set to become a reality.

Despite having received a budgetary allocation from the state government in 2016, the project failed to take off following opposition from the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), which argued the bridge would obstruct the movement of vessels along National Waterway 3.

Now, after numerous revisions of design and alignment, the IWAI is set to give a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the PWD Bridges Section, the implementing agency. Another major issue, that of land acquisition, too has been sorted out with the officials completing the survey.