Pipe-laying goes on in city, despite the slush

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Aristo Junction-Thampanoor Main Road is expected to be opened for traffic by Monday, despite fears that the monsoon might delay water supply pipe-laying works. JICA officials have affirmed that the work is progressing at a fast pace and the stretch will be thrown open within a couple of days. According to JICA officials and representatives of L&T, the contractor, the work is actually at an advanced stage.  “We are planning to open the road for traffic by Sunday or Monday. The rains have affected the pace of the work. In spite of that, we are all prepared to finish the pipe-laying work on the stretch. The road restoration work is also proceeding well,” said Mohan, superintending engineer of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), who is now holding the additional charge of JICA chief engineer. The road restoration involves the laying of wet mix macadam. That work is proceeding right now and once it is over, the road would be open for traffic. The next phase of restoration work needs dry weather. Which means, tarring will have to wait.  The laying of the 1,118-mm Mild Steel pipes which was stopped in December at the time of the International Film Festival of Kerala restarted on May 12. Of the total 290 m, just a little more distance has to be covered, according to an official with L&T. “If the rains had not arrived, we would have finished the work quite early,” he said. The remaining work, which is to be done later, in this route is connecting these newly-laid pipes with another 60-m pipe which has already been laid in front of the KSRTC bus station. “A few metres of pipe has to be laid to connect the two. For this, the starting point of the buses plying to Tamil Nadu has to be shifted. However, this wouldn’t affect traffic flow,” said another JICA official.