The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Need to widen carriageway of overbridge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 04, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Need to widen carriageway of overbridge

By John L.Paul

KOCHI, JAN. 3. Though land acquisition is almost over for the four-laning of the Sahodaran Ayyappan Road, the bottleneck posed by the two-lane Ernakulam South overbridge is a cause for concern.

This has made civic officials think of widening the carriageway on the Ernakulam South overbridge.

"Widening the carriageway on the congested bridge is in tune with the widening of the road," said the District Collector, A. P. M. Mohammed Hanish.

Footpath takeover

"The footpath on one side of the bridge can be taken over and added to the width of the carriageway. The cables which pass beneath the footpath will have to be relocated and the agencies concerned will have to take care of it. We wanted to widen the carriageway before the World Mayors' Conference, but the tidal attack has made us postpone the plan. The work will be carried out in the near future," he said.

As of now, few pedestrians use the footpaths on both sides of the Ernakulam South and North overbridges, with the others preferring to walk across the rails. The pedestrians do not face any problem though the Katrikadavu bridge in the Kaloor-Kadavanthra stretch and the Venduruthy bridge has only one footpath.

For small vehicles

The congestion in the Ernakulam North overbridge is not as bad as the one of the Ernakulam South overbridge, thanks to the separate tracks on either side to carry two and three-wheelers. Replicating the same in the South overbridge would mean the need to acquire land for the purpose.

An official of the Railways said that no proposal has come from the State Government to widen the carriageway or to lay separate tracks for smaller vehicles in the South overbridge. "It can be done on a cost-sharing basis, with the Railways taking care of the portion which passes over the rails," he said.

The ACP of Traffic (Ernakulam East), K E Joy said that laying separate tracks on either side of the South overbridge will ease congestion in the region. "Some vehicles can be diverted through the bridge proposed in Atlantis, which is long overdue. It is time some private buses began to be diverted through the Kaloor-Kadavanthra bridge," he said.

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