KOCHI: A dearth of red soil has halted midway the construction activities of the Rs 1,618-crore project to widen the 26-km long Edappally-Moothakunnam NH 66 stretch into a six-lane highway, resulting in heavy traffic congestion during peak hours at key stretches.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has completed 50% of the project, the implementation of which was started in October 2022. However, the shortage of red soil, for filling works, has hit the project, which earlier suffered an initial delay due to land acquisition issues.
What led to the crisis now is the High Court issuing an interim order stopping the quarrying activities while hearing multiple petitions charging that the agency failed to obtain necessary environmental clearance.
“The red soil is crucial for landfilling exercise. We require a total of 18 lakh cubic metre soil for the project. We have got the nod from the Mining and Geology Department for the extraction of 3 lakh cubic metre soil through borrowing activities at Thiruvaniyoor and near-by areas. However, the works have come to a standstill with the court issuing the interim stay for quarrying activities,” said a senior NHAI official.
“The original scheduled completion date is April 21, 2025, with a construction period of 910 days. However, now there is a total delay of one year,” the official added. To tide over the crisis, the NHAI has initiated talks with the Cochin Port Trust and the Irrigation Department to procure dredging soil and use them to replace red soil to resume the construction activities.
“This we have initiated to resume the project implementation which has come to a standstill. We have already completed 57 of the total 79 structures, including the 900-metre-long bridge at Varapuzha, which is being constructed using the unique balanced cantilever method,” the official said.
The NHAI is also hopeful of obtaining a favourable court order, citing an earlier Supreme Court order. In March last year, the Supreme Court quashed the exemption to linear projects granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India for prior environmental clearance. However, the apex court later gave a nod to NHAI projects that began before its order on soil extraction.
“We have started the construction work before the Supreme Court quashing the exemption and hence are hopeful of obtaining a favourable verdict,” the official said.
The 26.03-km stretch, from Edappally to Moothakunnam in Kodungallur, is the first of the five reaches of the 164-km Edappally-Ramanattukara (Kozhikode) NH 66 section, where the road widening exercise has been taken up. The works also involve the construction of a Railway Overbridge (RoB) at Edappally, four flyovers, 7 major bridges, 8 minor bridges, 8 vehicle underpasses, 5 small vehicular underpasses, 4 light vehicular underpasses, and one pedestrian underpass.