Fresh Trouble Hits Power Line Project.

Fresh trouble has hit the much-delayed Edamon-Kochi power transmission line project with the local groups along the Pathanamthitta-Kottayam border crying foul. With this, uncertainty once again clouds the 400 kv Tirunelveli-Madakkathara ‘power corridor,’ vital for Kerala to draw power from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu.

The survey for the construction of transmission towers was to have started after the local body elections in early December, but it has come to a halt on a 19-km stretch. The local people have raised objections to drawing power lines over their land, the KSEB officials have said.

The works on the Tirunelveli-Madakkathara (Thrissur) transmission corridor was started in 2008 with plans to commission it in March 2010. Protests by landowners had stalled work on a 148-km stretch from Edamon in Kollam to Pallikkara near Kochi for five years, resulting in much bad blood between the KSEB and the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), which is in charge of the construction. The rest of the work, from Tirunelveli to Edamon and Madakkathara to Pallikkara, is over. Last year, the state government had enhanced a `341-crore compensation package to `1,020 crore to placate landowners, but the group that has now raised objections is a new one, the officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) have said.

“The survey had to be stopped. On the other hand, the Revenue Department has started a survey for identifying beneficiaries for the compensation package from the Kochi side,” Bhuvanendra Prasad T R, Chief Engineer (Transmission - South), KSEB, said.

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS