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On 29 July 2024, many villages in Wayanad district of Kerala landedlide, more than 400 people were killed in the accident.
The four lane tunnel project between Kozhikode and Wayanad districts of Kerala has been postponed. An expert panel of the Union Environment Ministry has refused to approve the project on Monday.
The Ministry of Environment says that the tunnel passes through the Landslide affected areas in the Western Ghats and Wayanad last year. If the tunnel is formed, the environment may have a bad effect. The Ministry has said to further consider the project.
Under this project, those villages also come, which have been identified as sensitive from the environmental perspective in the Western Ghats. That is, the environment of these places is very delicate and their protection is necessary.
In fact, on 29 July 2024, Landslide came to Churalamala-Mundakai in Wayanad district of Kerala, in which many villages were swept away. More than 400 people were killed in the accident.
In Wayanad, there were landslides in Mundakai, Churalamala, Attamala and Nulpuzha villages between 2 pm on 29 July 2024 and 4 pm.
Four lane tunnel was going to be built for 2 thousand 134 crore rupees
The Kerala government proposed to connect two existing roads-Ankkampoi-Muthappanpuzha-Mipuzha road and the Meppadi-Kalladi-Churalamala road to the four-lane tunnel road. The cost of this project is Rs 2,134 crore.
The government says that with the formation of this tunnel, connectivity with state and national highways will improve. Along with this, travel in northern Kerala will be easy and inter-state connection with Karnataka will also be better.
Approval was received from State Expert Appraisal Committee
In March, the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) approved the 8.75 km long tunnel. This decision was taken because the evaluation could be done only at the state level according to the size of the project.
However, sources said that now the Central Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) is evaluating the project, as the tenure of members of the final sanction is over.
SEAC has to approve this project Some necessary conditions were kept so that the environment suffers the least damage-
- Creating maps of areas where the risk of landslide is high.
- Creating a corridor for safe movement of elephants.
- Monitoring local birds and animals like Banasura Chillappan on the impact from the project.