WB mission to hold talks with minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  The World Bank Mission for the review of phase II of Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) will hold discussions with PWD Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju on Tuesday.The meeting is expected to held at Hotel Mascot at 3 pm on Tuesday. The Mission held discussions with senior officials of PWD and Kerala Road Fund Board on Monday. The Mission members who reached the state last Wednesday inspected the road stretches to be developed under phase II.These  stretches include 27.76-km Kasargod-Kanhangad road, 20.90-km Pilathara-Pappinissery road, 4.5-km Thaliparamba-Iritty road, 53.12-km Thalassery-Valavupara road, 132.2-km Punalur-Ponkunnam-Thodupuzha stretch, 87-km Chengannur-Ettumanoor-Muvattupuzha stretch and 41-km Perumbilavu- Pattambi-Perinthalmanna road.  The works of Thaliparamba-Iritty road is expected to begin by April. The Mission will review projects till Wednesday. Some team members will return on Wednesday while some will stay till Friday. The World Bank Mission consists of experts from various fields including Finance, Transport, sociology and environment. An amount of as much as `650 crore (US$ 141 million) had been sought from the World Bank for the project covering 367.40 km. The Mission is headed by Simon Ellis. The other members of the mission are senior transport engineer Arnab Bandyopadhyay, procurement specialist Kalesh Kumar, PPP specialist Srikumar Tadimalla, Global Road Safety Facility Programme coordinator Said Dahdah, senior finance management specialist Atul Balchandra Deshpande, environment specialist Ernesto Sanchez-Triana, social development specialist Sangeethakumari, transport development specialist Dominic Pasquale Patella, governance consultant Krishnan Sreenivasan and senior programme assistant N S Sreenivas.