The Hindu : Kerala News : Edapally-Cheranalloor road commissioning by March 2007

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Kerala

Kerala

Edapally-Cheranalloor road commissioning by March 2007

Staff Reporter

Road will reduce congestion at Edapally bypass junction

IN FOCUS: The diversion road from Al Ameen School to the Edapally bypass junction is in a state of disuse as electronic traffic signals are yet to be installed at the junction. - Photo: H. Vibhu

KOCHI: The much-awaited 4.9-km Edapally-Cheranalloor road, which connects NH 47 with NH 17 and scheduled for opening in December this year, will be ready only by March 2007.

Piling work for the 326-metre road overbridge had come to a stop a couple of days back following a dispute between the contractor and the sub-contractor over the cost of carrying out the work. Sources in the PWD(NH) said that the work would resume soon. The work on the overbridge and the 1.65-km approach road from Al-Ameen School to Muttar Junction was held up for many months last year because of delay on the part of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORT and H) to give sanction for the same. This was because the amount quoted by the contractor was 26 per cent higher than the expected amount.

Those who will benefit the most by the new road will be patients going to the Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences and passengers to Guruvayur, Paravoor and Kodungaloor.

The agony of waiting endlessly at the level crossing on the route will end once the new bridge is ready. Travelling time too will be considerably reduced.

The arms on either side of the bridge have a total length of 281 metres and the railway portion is 45 metres. The PWD(NH) sources said that the bridge required 114 piles. "Of this, only 33 have been driven. The Railways will complete the work on its portion of the bridge by May. For this, the National Highway Department had handed over Rs.2.97 crores to the Railways in 2003. The work on the arms will be over only by March 2007. The approach roads will be ready by August."

The road works are expected to cost Rs.54 crores. The carriageway will be 7.5-metres wide, but land has been acquired at a width of 30 metres. Now only two lanes are being readied. The road (which starts off at a different alignment further north on the NH bypass) will considerably reduce traffic congestion on the existing road and at the junction from where the present road takes off from the NH 47 bypass.

Once the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) takes up the road, work will begin to convert it into a four-lane road, land for which has already been acquired at a cost of Rs.30 crores.

Diversion road

With the two-lane Edapally-Cheranalloor Road expected to take over a year to be ready, the PWD had readied a 350-metre long, seven-metre wide diversion road at a cost of Rs.14 lakhs from the Edapally bypass junction to Al-Ameen School.

Thus vehicles from Vytilla will be able to reach the junction near the school in a straight line, without getting caught in traffic snarls at the junction.

Similarly, vehicles from the other side will be able to take a turn towards Kalamassery with ease. Thus, a cross junction like the one at Vytilla has been formed, enabling easier entry from NH 47 to NH 17.

But the road is in a state of disuse because of delay in putting up electronic traffic signals. Ernakulam RTO M.N. Prabhakaran said that the matter had been taken up with the District Cooperative Bank, which sponsored the lights at the junction.

"The lights will soon be in place, so that traffic at the junction is streamlined," he said.

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