KOZHIKODE: The Wayanad Chamber of Commerce (WCC) has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday inviting its attention to the Sultan Bathery-Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi alternative road to resolve the imbroglio regarding the night traffic ban on the Bandipur stretch. The chamber has proposed the highly feasible and environmentally viable route to the Karnataka chief secretary also.
“We don’t know why the Kerala government has not apprised the Supreme Court of the highly feasible Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi-Begur-Mysuru route. The route has not come up in official discussions. WCC will file another writ petition in the Kerala High Court and submit a memorandum to the Kerala chief secretary highlighting the alternative road,” WCC president Johny Pattani told TNIE.
He said the chamber is totally against the complete shutdown of Kozhikode-Kollegal NH 766 and wants the night traffic ban on the Bandipur stretch lifted. “The complete shutdown will cause the death of the hill district. At the same time, we have to be realistic. When there is a straight and shorter road connecting Wayanad and Mysuru passing through only a lesser area of forest, why can’t we recommend it as the best alternative road before the apex court?” Pattani asks.
The Sulthan Bathery-Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi road, which was one of the recommendations of NATPAC in 2014, is claimed to pass through 19 kilometres of forest, besides cutting short the distance by 20km.
But people who knew the road closely aver that the road passes through only 9km of forest.
The proposed road starts from Moolamkavu near Sulthan Bathery and proceeds on the Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi-Begur-Mysore route.
From Chikkabaragi, it could be connected to Gundlupet also. Environmentalists, Nilgiri-Wayanad NH & Rail Action Committee and WCC are for this route.