Kerala’s twin tunnel project with an eye on tourism draws flak after landslide in the area
The massive landslide in Kerala’s Wayanad, the crown of which is close to the mouth of a proposed four-lane underground twin tunnel, has raised questions about the rationale behind the project which the Kerala government is reportedly pursuing to improve tourism in the region. The proposed tunnel is expected to be third-largest in India. The pathway will connect Anakkampoyil in Kozhikode and Meppadi in Wayanad — where the landslide took place — and is expected to bring down the distance between the two districts from 85 km to 54 km. Not just activists and environmentalists, even the government's own impact assessment report has said that the land in the area is unstable.
"The crown of the landslide is close to the proposed mouth of the tunnel in Vellarimala," said N Badushah, president of Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, a collective that has been campaigning against the project citing the ecological fragility of the Western Ghats mountains it cuts through.