Satheesan asks Chief Minister not to go ahead with coastal highway project
The UDF will not allow the LDF government to upend the lives of lakhs of fisher families in the name of big-ticket development and tourism, he says
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has written an open letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requesting that the government refrain from going ahead with the 620-km coastal highway project.
Laying the ground for an anti-SilverLine-like agitation, Mr Satheeshan questioned the government’s rationale for constructing a coastal highway when the NH 66, which is being six-laned, ran parallel to the Arabian Sea from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod. He pointed out that the distance between NH 66 and the Arabian Sea ranged from 50 m to 15 km.
Mr. Satheeshan said the starry-eyed project would displace lakhs of fishers from their natural environs and upend their livelihood by cutting easy sea access.
“Do you plan to squeeze fishers into the narrow space between two major highways,” Mr. Satheeshan asked Mr Vijayan.
He said everything about the proposed coastal highway was opaque. Mr. Satheesan said the government had initiated land acquisition for the project without a detailed project report or an independent assessment of its social, economic, and environmental viability.
He said proximity to the sea was a lifeline for fishers. Cutting it off in the name of big-ticket and questionable development was tantamount to erasing the subsistence of the underprivileged and marginalised fishing community.
Mr. Satheesan alleged that the government’s arbitrary move to freeze a large swath of the coast violated the provisions of landowners’ right to receive fair compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement.
He said Kerala faced the dire threat of coastal erosion. Investing in a wide road with a cycle path on its perimeter within the upper swash limit of waves defied logic.
Moreover, the construction of the road would impede natural drainage into the Arabian Sea and exacerbate flooding during the monsoon. Mr. Satheesan said the UDF was not against development.
However, the UDF would not allow the LDF government to make ordinary working-class families homeless in the name of big-ticket development and tourism. He said 63% of the proposed coastal carriage passed through high-risk coastal erosion localities.
Mr. Satheesan said the government’s promise to rehabilitate fishers displaced by the coastal highway rang hollow. He said the LDF had not rehabilitated fishers displaced by the Vizhinjam International Seaport.
He urged Mr Vijayan to present a sustainable, environment-friendly coastal development package. “The government would do better if it insulated the coast against beach erosion and improved coastal roads to enhance their connectivity between fish landing centres and the NH 66,” he said.
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