THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The insufficient number of labourers due to the spike in Covid-19 cases has again slowed down the ongoing second phase development of national highway bypass from Mukkola near Kovalam to Karode near Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. This has forced the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to push the completion of deadline of NH66 bypass from October 2020 to January 2021. The deadline was extended from May to October two months ago.
According to the NHAI, the work will not be completed soon as only 150 labourers are in work currently. The minimum requirement of the number of labourers should be 300 and the work could be completed early only if they worked in day and night shifts. “We have an acute shortage of workers. However, we are trying to mobilise them to the work spot after completing their quarantine period. The workers were brought to the state on buses from West Bengal and Orissa only last month. So we cannot complete the work in October which is why we had to push again the deadline to January,” said P Pradeep, project director, NHAI.
So far, 87 percent of the work has been completed. The construction of underpasses, bridges and culverts have been completed. The local residents at Thirupuram wanted to build an underpass and the NHAI has not decided yet whether to construct it or not. Unlike other road development works, the NHAI is developing the 16.3-kilometre stretch as a new road connecting Tamil Nadu. The contractor, L&T Construction, is also developing the remaining part of the stretch in Tamil Nadu that extends to Kanyakumari.The road widening project was started in July 2017. In addition to various underpasses and flyovers, one major bridge has also been constructed across the Neyyar river near Neyyattinkara.
Toll plaza work at Thiruvallom
The first toll plaza of the NH66 bypass from Kazhakoottam to Karode will come up at Thiruvallam. However, the NHAI will start the construction of a temporary toll plaza at Vazhamuttom on the bypass within 10 days. The NHAI sources said the temporary toll plaza will start functioning within two months and the initial work for constructing a permanent toll plaza in the Thiruvallom-Vazhamuttom stretch is in progress. Earlier, the toll plaza was planned at Akkulam. But it was later shifted to Thiruvallam to avoid the inconvenience of commuters from the city to Kazhakoottam.
