Before Attukal Pongala, 17 roads in the city corporation will be made motorable under the Smart City Mission's smart road programme. Eight roads in and around East Fort have already begun construction. According to a top official with the Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (SCTL), the special purpose vehicle for the capital's smart road projects, all 17 roads will be rendered motorable by March 7, but making them smart will take time. The job is moving quickly. Before the celebration, all 17 roads in the Fort and Chalai regions will be made motorable. But, converting these to smart roadways will take time, according to the official. All of these miniature roads have a maximum length of 150 to 200 yards. The SCTL announced the road tender two weeks ago. As the agency floated the tender this time by breaking the roads into shorter portions, many contractors participated. Due to contractor non-participation, work on these roads was delayed for almost five months. Repair work on eight of the total 17 highways has already begun. Nonetheless, 32 roads are still under development as part of the project. Meanwhile, the bidding for the proposed major smart road from Althara to Attakulangara will be opened on Tuesday by the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB). To rebuild the Kalabhavan Mani Road, the SCTL has commenced talks with the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS). Similarly, talks with contractors are underway to rebuild Manaveeyam Road. The tender for other roadways, including the Statue-General Hospital Road and the Spencer-AKG Centre Road, will also be opened on Tuesday. The SCTL is working on a tight deadline, with the project expected to be finished by April. Both the SCTL and the KRFB divided the work in tiny packages and filed tenders in November 2022, aiming for numerous contractors to take on the task and execute it concurrently. Unfortunately, the SCTL was forced to re-tender the project since contractors were unwilling to take on the work. Also Read Invoke industrial minimalism with Diesel Open Workshop collection World’s largest modern downtown to be developed in Riyadh