Key Sabarimala road projects still incomplete ahead of Mandalam-Makaravilakku season

Thiruvalla: Several road development works in Pathanamthitta, funded under the Sabarimala Road Development Scheme, remain incomplete even with just four days left for the start of the Mandalam-Makaravilakku season.

Approval for this year’s Sabarimala Festival Works was granted only on November 6. In the Thiruvalla assembly constituency alone, projects worth ₹9.8 crore were sanctioned. However, by the time construction actually begins, the two-month pilgrimage season is likely to be over.

Even projects sanctioned in previous years are only now reaching their initial stages. For instance, ₹5.17 crore was allotted in 2021–22 under the Sabarimala Festival Fund for the Varattar Bridge–Othara–Kallissery Road. The project had come to an abrupt halt soon after it began, but work has recently resumed under a revised plan, with efforts focused on road levelling, widening, and constructing a protective wall.   

Similarly, during 2022–23, ₹4.83 crore was sanctioned for the Manippuzha (Undaplavu)–Peringara and Moovidathupadi–Mepral roads under a single project. However, the work was awarded to a contractor only recently and has just entered the initial phase of construction.

The ₹8.5 crore project to restore the Kanjirathumoodu–Chathankari Road, sanctioned in 2023–24 under the Sabarimala Festival Works, has made only partial progress so far, with resurfacing completed on just half the stretch.

The work on the Krishnapadam Road, for which ₹3.5 crore was sanctioned in 2024–25, is yet to begin. The project is awaiting Cabinet approval after the contractor quoted a higher amount during the tender process.

Meanwhile, redevelopment works on the TK Road, for which ₹4.94 crore was sanctioned from the state government’s non-plan fund under the Sabarimala Festival Works in 2023–24, have seen partial completion. The section from Thiruvalla to Vallamkulam is already complete, but the remaining stretches from Vallamkulam to Kozhencherry and till Kumbazha are still unfinished. This road, connecting Thiruvalla to Kumbazha, is among the most frequently used by pilgrims during the Sabarimala season.