Kerala's environment panel raises concerns over Wayanad tunnel road project, seeks more details

Thiruvananthapuram: Fate of Kerala government's much hyped Wayanad twin tunnel road project continues to hang in balance as the Kerala State Environmental Appraisal Committee (SEAC) has sought more details on the environmental impact of the project, especially in view of the recent Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide that claimed over 300 lives.

The proposed 8.7 kilometre twin tunnel road from Meppadi in Wayanad to Anakkampoyil in Kozhikode is hardly four kilometres away from the July 30 landslide hit Mundakkai-Chooralmala area and 0.85 km away from the 2019 Puthumala landslide area.

Even as the state government furnished a set of 28 additional details sought by SEAC earlier, the committee still has apprehensions over the environmental impact of the project and hence sought more details for considering environmental clearance.

According to sources, a meeting of the SEAC held from November 4 to 6 considered the matter and asked the project proponent, state public works department (PWD), to furnish more details on the maximum impact that the tunnelling work would cause to the environment as well as details about the carbon emission and solid waste management.

PWD Kozhikode roads division executive engineer told DH that SEAC sought some more clarifications and those would be furnished soon. It is part of the normal procedure, he added.

Even before the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide SEAC had raised concerns over the frequent landslides in the region and the proposed tunnel's proximity to the 2019 Puthumala landslide spot. In view of the resentment against the project after the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide, SEAC is meticulously reviewing the proposed project, said sources.

The Left-front government is facing criticism for showing undue haste in the project as the tenders for the project was finalised even before getting the environmental clearance, that too hardly a month after the devastating landslide. Despite serious concerns raised by environmentalists, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan justified that tunnel roads were not reported to have led to calamities anywhere.

While the Rs 1,600 crore tunnel road project is being projected as a measure to decongest the popular Thamarassery ghat road of Wayanad, environmentalists are questioning the need for a new tunnel road in the ecologically fragile regions of the Western Ghats instead of developing the existing ghat roads.