From Vizhinjam to Kasaragod: A 769-km journey through Keralam’s fractured infrastructure

…New York University’s ‘Wall House’—a global initiative preserving history through architectural relics—claimed the wall to feature alongside 300 others at its Abu Dhabi campus. Then came the question of moving it. “ The biggest challenge was taking it to the Kochi Port ,” Munshid Ali, secretary of the Kerala Exporters Forum, tells me. It was his firm that was tasked with the job. A routine 200-kilometer (km) drive to the port turned into a 10-day logistical nightmare. To move the huge…

…“Despite these advantages, I am at a competitive disadvantage as it takes a lot of time and money to move my products by road,” he tells me. It is a bottleneck that renders Keralam inherently tough for manufacturing. “ It is true that the state’s narrow roads increase transaction costs. Hopefully, it would reduce once the expansion of National Highway 66 is complete ,” K.N. Harilal, chairman of the State Finance Commission, tells me later. From Angamaly, I press on toward Thrissur—the state’s financial centre and gold hub, famous as the birthplace of giants like Kalyan Jewellers…

…network. Land acquisition costs are prohibitively high, and state coffers are bare. Yet without widening these feeder arteries, Keralam cannot harvest the full economic rewards of the upgraded National Highway 66. “ The only way is to prioritise borrowing. Instead of using it to fund routine expenditure such as salaries and pension, the state should borrow to create assets like roads. It should tap more into the 50-year interest free loan that Centre offers ,” CDS’ Veeramani tells me. I reach Kozhikode at 4 PM, having logged six hours to cover 217 km. Day 3: 232 km I set off from Kozhikode at 10 AM, aiming to cross Keralam’s northern border into Karnataka by early evening…