Even as a 15-km elevated highway is being built in the Aroor-Thuravur NH 66 corridor, and a six-lane highway is being built in the Edappally-Muthakunnam NH 66 stretch, uncertainty prevails over the plight of an elevated highway that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) proposed on the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 Bypass.
This comes amid fears that the NH Bypass will become a choke point for vehicles from across the State that pass through the corridor.
Official sources said the 16-km Edappally-Aroor stretch, most of which passed through Kochi city and carried a whopping one lakh passenger car units (PCUs) daily, needed a six or eight-lane elevated highway. This is mainly because it would be tough to widen the congested and heavily built up Edappally-Vyttila four-lane stretch, where traffic hold ups are the norm.
Denying that tenders were floated to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the elevated highway, they said the proposal for the 16-km elevated corridor (which is estimated to cost between ₹100 crore and ₹130 crore per km) was awaiting permission from the NHAI head office. The agency’s project implementation office here had replied to queries posed by the head office regarding its implementation, it is learnt.
Metro line
In the meantime, public transport enthusiasts and others have suggested that a metro viaduct be built atop the elevated highway, citing how the metro viaduct was built atop the Edapally flyover. “A wide, elevated flyover is needed on the NH bypass, considering that the city is fast expanding eastward. An approximately 7-km metro viaduct linking viaduct of the mass rapid transport system that passes through Edappally and Vyttila would in turn save on construction cost while avoiding the need for land acquisition,” said Rangadasa Prabhu, president of Ernakulam District Residents Association Apex Council (EDRAAC).
It will also considerably lessen travel time in metro trains, from Aluva to Vyttila and Thripunithura, and back. Thought must also be given to an underpass like the one that had been mooted at the congested Edappally Junction, where NH 66 intersects NH 544. All this was crucial for seamless and hassle-free commute in the city, he added.
Official sources said metro agencies in cities like Chennai had been building such two-tier constructions, having elevated roads beneath the metro viaduct, on a cost-sharing basis with agencies that owned roads.
Responding to this, KMRL sources said little thought has gone into taking the metro through NH 66 bypass. It would also need a take off point from the metro viaduct at Edappally and Vyttila. With work set to begin on phase two (Kakkanad extension), the focus was now on phase three (the Aluva international airport extension), they added.
If not an Edappally-Vyttila metro extension, KMRL could well think of it on the Palarivattom-Vyttila stretch, with the viaduct taking off from Palarivattom Bypass Junction on the metro’s proposed Kakkanad extension, said Yacub Mohan George, bridge design consultant, who retired as Deputy Chief Engineer from PWD (NH wing). “This would in turn help attract vast many commuters from the fast-developing NH bypass stretch. The firm I am associated with now has envisaged combined piers for the flyovers proposed at Pattom, Ulloor and Sreekariam in Thiruvananthapuram, with the metro viaduct atop them,” he said.
