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• The proposed coastal highway connecting Vypeen and Munambam is hanging fire, as there is confusion over who will undertake its construction, the Goshree Island Development Authority (GIDA) or the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).When contacted, officials in both the GIDA and the NHAI said the file was not on their table. The proposed project aims to find a solution to the traffic congestion on the Vypeen-Munambam Road connecting NH17. Two years after it was announced in 2006, FACT Engineering and Design Organisation (FEDO) submitted the draft alignment study for the proposed 23.5 km coastal highway to GIDA, the implementing agency. According to GIDA deputy planning officer Meena Kumari, the NHAI took over the project last year.
• "Even after completing the alignment work and submitting the report for approval, we did not receive any communication from them. Last year, we were intimated that the NHAI had taken up the project and will execute it by including it in the seventh phase of its projects," she said. While GIDA has washed their hands off the project, the NHAI authorities said it was the local administration that was delaying it."We can take it up only if we get central government permission. For this, the local administration and the state government should submit a proposal, which they have not done so far," said CT Abraham, project director, NHAI. Meanwhile, S Sarma, Vypeen MLA and former fisheries minister, said the NHAI had rejected the proposal submitted by the government as the project cost of Rs 150 crore exceeded project ratio norms."NHAI had asked the state government to revise the project cost and resubmit the file. As of now, the government has not done anything in this regard," he said.

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