Kerala - Kochi   

Consultancy firm to study Kochi’s traffic snarls

KOCHI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has agreed to appoint a consultancy firm to study the traffic problems that Kochi is encountering, Public Works Minister Mons Joseph said in the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

He was answering a submission raised by K. Babu, MLA, on long-pending road and bridge projects in Kochi. Mr Babu had expressed concern at the delay in carrying out work on four flyovers at junctions along the NH 47 bypass, the four-laning of the Vytilla-Aroor and Vytilla-Pettah roads, the Thammanam-Pullepady road, extension of the Airport-Seaport road up to the airport, finalising the alignment for the Thripunithura bypass and the road overbridges at the level crossings in Pullepady, Edapally, Atlantis and Ponnurunni.

Mr Joseph said preliminary talks have been held with officials in the Ministry of Surface Transport to include these works in a package to be implemented by the NHAI, under the authority’s Seventh Plan. The Centre has been pressured to hasten four-laning the Vytilla-Aroor stretch, work on which got stalled about two years ago. A detailed survey has to be carried out to fix the new alignment plan for the Thammanam-Pullepady road. As far as the Thripunithura bypass is concerned, land acquisition is over up to Tiruvankulam. The PWD has been asked to finalise a fresh alignment for the portion in between Tiruvankulam and Kundanoor.

Steps have been taken to complete work on the Edapally bridge, where work had stalled following the increase in the price of construction materials. The Railways has so far been unable to finalise a contractor for the pending work on the Pullepady bridge. The Railways has promised that work would be over by December. It has not given priority to the Atlantis bridge. Land acquisition is over for the Ponnurunni bridge, Mr Joseph said, adding that the possibility of including the bridge projects in a special scheme being proposed by the State government is being studied.

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