The 14.1-km Paravur-Kollam coastal road, which was washed away by the sea in 1998, has been revived and opened to traffic. The most vulnerable portion of the road, through a seasonal estuary, has been strengthened by 12 groynes of length ranging from 30 metres to 100 metres. The revived coastal road is 7 metres wide.
With the revival of the link, the travel time by road from Kollam to Paravur has been reduced by more than 30 minutes. It is now a cool drive along the coast from Kollam to Paravur in about 15 minutes. The revival of the 1.1-km estuary stretch was completed last week at Rs.60 lakh.
The link has now made even Varkala closer to Kollam by road, as a motorable coastal road already exists from Paravur to Varkala. It is believed that unscientific construction of the road had led to it getting battered by the sea. Assistant Executive Engineer of the Public Work Department who supervised the work said the revival of the road had been carried out on the basis of a report submitted by the civil engineering wing of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Bathometric survey
The State Hydrographic Survey wing had conducted a bathometric survey and submitted a report. Without the coastal road, to reach Paravur by road from Kollam one has to drive through the congested stretches of the National Highway passing through Pallimukku and Kottiyam, taking a deviation at Chathannur, pass through Meenad and Poothakulam, taking almost an hour. From Kollam, the coastal road passes through the Kollam beach, Mundakkal Papanasam beach, Eravipuram, Kakkathhoppe, Mukkam, Thanni and Pozhikkara. Almost 90 per cent of the road is along the sea coast.
