Light at the end of the tunnel?

Proposed tunnel road in Kerala sparks debate between environmentalists and locals over benefits and ecological impact.

Jassim Peroor, 31, a small-time restaurant owner from Wayanad’s Meppadi village, turns emotional as he recalls the heart-breaking departure of his 60-year-old father hit by COVID-19 in 2021. A two-hour-long snarl-up on the hairpin curves of the 14-km Thamarassery ghat road was spoiling the golden hour intervention for the elderly man, who later succumbed to the illness at a hospital in Kozhikode.  

Jassim points out that he represents thousands of such hapless villagers in Wayanad who are waiting for the proposed 8.11-km-long four-lane twin tunnel road linking Kozhikode district’s Anakkampoyil in Thiruvambady panchayat with Wayanad district’s Kalladi in Meppadi panchayat.  

“We will fight for it as we will not be able to survive such tormenting experiences again,” he says, greeting the customers at his restaurant near the proposed project area.  

Wayanad, prone to natural disasters such as the landslides early this year, does not have specialty medical care facilities. This forces the people to travel to Kozhikode for treatment.

Even as a section of environmentalists opposes the multi-crore project that passes through the environmentally sensitive areas of the Western Ghats, the villagers on either side of the proposed project consider it a lifeline for their survival. The main attraction for them is the drop in the travel distance between Anakkampoyil and Meppadi from 42 km to just 20 km. They also say that this will cut short the distance between Kozhikode town and Kalpetta, the district headquarters of Wayanad, from the present 85 km to 54 km. Travel along the narrow ghat road that winds up its way to Wayanad is time-consuming, they maintain.

Ashraf Pulikkalakath, a Gulf returnee living at Kalladi in the proposed project area, has no qualms about giving up his 1,100-sq. ft. house that he built with the savings from his 30 years of expatriate life for the project. “My wife and three children also support my stance. We have trust in the government’s rehabilitation package as several people have already received it,” the 55-year-old explains.

His neighbour, tourism entrepreneur Jabirsha Vellathoor, is also firm in his decision to give up his house and land for the tunnel project estimated to cost ₹1,500 crore. “We have no other practical option to bypass the nine hairpin curves on the Thamarassery ghat road. The completion of this project will definitely help our people to quickly access various hospitals, educational institutions and the Calicut International Airport,” he points out.