NATPAC submits revised report to KIIFB on decongesting Vyttila

NATPAC submits detailed report to KIIFB outlining steps to decongest Vyttila, Kerala's biggest junction plagued by traffic chaos.

The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) has submitted a detailed report to Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) outlining steps to decongest Vyttila - said to be the biggest junction in Kerala, where acute traffic congestion and chaos prevails even after commissioning a six-lane flyover in 2021.

The report is a revision of the one that had beenprepared in May 2023. The revision follows a recent decision to allocate land to KSRTC for a long-distance bus depot at Vyttila Mobility Hub, in return for Vyttila Mobility Hub (VMH) being given KSRTC-owned land at Karikkamury in the city to build an integrated bus terminal. The report also took into account the phase-two development of VMH, where commercial development has been envisaged as part of steps to mobilise revenue, said sources in NATPAC.

All this was in addition to a proposal to have U turns below flyovers that were planned on the northern and southern sides of Vyttila Junction. This would streamline movement of vehicles in the east-west direction, like in Palarivattom, they added.

Currently, movement of vehicles coming from the Palarivattom and Kundannur side towards S.A. Road and Thripunithura, as well as those from Palarivattom wanting to turn left towards Thripunithura and VMH are hindered. Experts, commuters, and NGOs had attributed this to shoddy planning by PWD (NH wing) that built the flyover.

The NATPAC, in its capacity as the design consultant for KIIFB, had in 2023 suggested the construction of a pair of flyovers parallel to the metro viaduct that crossed Vyttila Junction on the S.A. Road-Thripunithura corridr, in order to decongest the junction and half a dozen approach roads to it. Another option the agency suggested was a three-km-long, at-grade-cum-elevated corridor ALONG the backwaters on the Elamkulam-Champakkara stretch.

In the meantime, the PWD’s assurance in early 2021 to carry out widening and second-phase development works of the junction, in order to streamline flow of vehicles and to ensure safety of pedestrians, is yet to be fulfilled.