Netoor on NH 66 may get Kerala’s first clover-leaf intersection

NHAI considers clover-leaf intersection at Netoor due to increasing traffic from bypass and greenfield highways, awaiting MoRTH approval.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is considering a clover-leaf intersection at Netoor on the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 bypass. This is because a trumpet flyover it had planned there might not be able to cater for vehicles from the bypass and three greenfield national highways that are expected to take off from Nettoor.

The NH bypass alone caters for a whopping one lakh passenger car units (PCUs) daily. “Many more vehicles would converge at Netoor once the greenfield highways took off from there to the Kochi Port, Angamaly, and Theni. Put short, traffic from 14 lanes would converge afresh at what is at present a congested six-lane NH corridor at Netoor,” informed sources said.

A final decision on whether to build a clover-leaf flyover instead of a trumpet-shaped one would be taken on the basis of the sanction that is awaited from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for the Kochi-Theni Greenfield NH, which is expected to cater for container lorries operating between Kochi and Tuticorin ports, it is learnt.

MoRTH has already given the go-ahead for the 6-km-long port-connectivity highway corridor (NH 966-B) that the NHAI had proposed to link Nettoor with CIFT Junction on Willingdon Island. Land acquisition for the four-lane highway that would be readied to cater for container lorries from Vizhinjam and other ports is set to commence in December. MoRTH was, in addition, expected to shortly take a call on the 44-km six-lane Kochi Bypass that the NHAI had mulled in the Nettoor-Angamaly corridor, following which the land acquisition process was set to gather momentum, sources said.

The NHAI has, in the meantime, submitted to MoRTH the alignment report for the six-lane elevated highway that has been mulled in the 16-km Edappally-Aroor NH 66 corridor to decongest the stretch. The elevated structure is expected to be readied with minimal land acquisition at locales where ramps would be built at junctions to establish link with the bypass beneath. Its construction is set to begin in early 2025 and is expected to be commissioned in early 2028. Once readied, the number of PCUs in the corridor is expected to cross the one lakh-mark, further adding to the number of vehicles that will pass through Netoor.