
KOCHI: Despite finalising the alignment two years ago, little headway has been made in the 46-km-long Kundannoor-Angamaly bypass .The stretch, on a average witnesses over 1 lakh passenger cars daily and exceeds the four-lane capacity limit by over three times
Vehicles are still jostling in the serpentine queues between Kundannoor and Angmaly. Despite the hopes of reduced congestion after the proposed opening of Vyttilla and Kundannoor flyovers, motorists have experienced no respite. With additional miseries of Palarivattom flyover reconstruction, many question the need to pay toll at Aroor only to get struck in traffic till Edappally.
Despite finalising the alignment two years ago, little headway has been made in the long-pending demand for 46-km-long Kundannoor-Angamaly bypass. The land acquisition for the project, marked 2 km north of Angamaly town on NH 544 and ending 1.5 km south of Kundannoor Junction on NH 66, was supposed to be completed in December 2018.
The stretch going through Perumbavoor and Tripunithura was touted as a solution for the Angamalay-Kundannoor stretch which witnesses on an average over 1 lakh passenger car units (PCUs) daily. As per official sources, the NH66 stretch exceeds the four-lane capacity limit by over three times.
“Many of us have been regularly travelling from other districts like Kottayam and Alappuzha and ride the busiest stretch to reach other end of Ernakulam. Apart from taking toll charge from passengers, officials are in no mood to find a solution to the issue. We have been hearing about the bypass project for a while. Authorities are ignoring our plight,” said Pratheesh V, a motorist belonging from Kottayam.
Meanwhile, NHAI officials clarified that the detailed project report (DPR) was not yet ready for the greenfield NH bypass project. “We are envisaging access-controlled greenfield method for the project and employed US-based consultant Louis Berger for preparing the DPR. The process is still on and the state government has started the land acquisition process a month ago. We are trying our best to reduce the land acquisition after conducting social and environmental impact studies in the stretch. We are hoping to start the construction by next year,” said a source close to the agency.
Many point out that completing the remaining stretch of Seaport-Airport Road will reduce the traffic snarls on the stretch to an extent. “Officials are forgetting the importance of completing the Seaport-Airport Road.
It serves the same purpose and will help a lot in decongesting the Kundannoor-Angamaly stretch. Out of the total 27 km, only 14 km has been completed. Besides, constructing 8.25 km long Tripunithura bypass on Kochi-Madurai NH will help us to achieve the target,” said V C Jayendran, general convener, Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents’ Association.
Earlier, both Lok Sabha MPs from the district, Benny Behanan and Hibi Eden, met Union Minister Nithin Gadkari to kickstart the project without further delay. The project has been getting delayed over the central agency’s demand of bearing half the expense of project by state government.
Aiming towards highspeed future
Though the new alignment will be 13 km longer than the existing 33-km Angamaly-Kundannoor stretch, the corridor will have a design that ensures speed of 100 km per hour. The road will have interchangeable cuts at the median strip every 2 km. The stretch will also have service roads on both sides. The stretch will have two rail overbridges and eight flyovers. Initially, two other alignments along with Perumbavoor-Thripunithura stretch were considered by the officials.