HC grants 2 weeks to Kerala govt, NHAI to file affidavits

The govt informed the Court that there were some disputes on the matter of land acquisition

The Kerala High Court today granted two weeks time to the state government and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to inform the reasons for delay in the development of Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram and Alapuzha-Haripad national highways.

The direction in this regard was issued by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and justice P R Ramachandra Menon on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Suresh Babu seeking a direction to maintain 45-meters width of the national highway.

The bench said though land was acquired long back, widening work had not been completed so far. The government informed the Court that there were some disputes on the matter of land acquisition. The bench held that the affidavits of the state government and NHAI shows that there was no consensus on the part of the authorities in the matter of construction of the national highways. Due to the delay, the loss is caused to the public exchequer, the court said and granted two weeks time to file affidavits.