THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first full board meeting of newly-constituted Road Infrastructure Company Kerala Limited (RICK) will be held on Wednesday. Formed to implement the State Roads Improvement Project (SRIP), the RICK has been formed with government having 51 per cent stake and the Kerala Road Fund Board holding 49 per cent. The board will discuss the road identification report submitted by Wilbur Smith Associates. PWD Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju is the chairman of RICK. PWD Principal Secretary P H Kurian, Law Secretary C P Ramaraja Prema Prasad, Finance Secretary V P Joy, Additional Chief Secretary Nivedita P Haran, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Chief Engineer of Roads and Bridges T Baburaj and chief operating officer of KRFB P C Harikesh are the board members. The Wilbur Smith Associates, which was entrusted with the task of identifying roads for SRIP, will submit the report on Monday. Around 1200 km roads have been identified for the Rs 5100-crore project. The SRIP works include rebuilding of the existing roads, geometric correction, construction of footpaths and shoulders, introduction of pedestrian safety measures, street lights and signal junctions. The State Government has granted Rs 200 crore for land acquisition purposes. Around Rs 1000 crore will be allocated by the State Government. The rest Rs 4000 crore will be raised by the KRFB through various loans, infrastructure bonds and PPP. The state is seeking financial assistance from Asian Development Bank for the implementation of SRIP. The Department of Economic Affairs will recommend to the ADB for the loan. KRFB is the executing agency of SRIP. The SRIP and phase II of KSTP are expected to bring much changes to the state roads.
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