Kochi : Supreme Court verdict ordering a reconstruction of Palarivattom flyover comes as acknowledgment for state government’s unfaltering stand on the issue, said PWD Minister G Sudhakaran. The judgment marks victory for engineering professionalism and righteous decisions, said the Minister who met with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan soon after the verdict, and informed media that construction works will commence very soon.
A meeting of ministers earlier had mooted to demolish the existing flyover and replace it with a new one, all in a period of 9-months – a proposition that found nod from E Sreedaran who was entrusted with the reconstruction works. Had the works be allowed to take off on schedule then, the new flyover would have been all ready and possibly functional by now. All that came out of the lower court order was an 8-month delay to the imminent new flyover. The nature of verdict delivered by lower court caught everybody by surprise at that time. Now through its verdict, the Supreme Court has acknowledged how state government was right all through in its stand on the crucial flyover, the minister said.
A bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman on Tuesday directed the state government to demolish and reconstruct the shoddily built Palarivattom flyover ending the long drawn litigation between contractors and state government and paving way to ease the city’s traffic congestion.
