NHAI to fast-track Kundannur-Angamaly greenfield NH

Agency sees Kochi as among the major choking points in NH network

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will speed up the process to commence land acquisition for the 40-km Kundannur-Angamaly greenfield NH that was mooted in 2016, with congested highways in Kochi being seen as a choking point for vehicles.

The access-controlled stretch having a design speed of 100 kmph is expected to decongest the ever-busy Aroor-Edappally NH 66 Bypass, the Edappally-Angamaly NH 544 corridor, and the underdeveloped Seaport-Airport Road. Of this, the two largely four-lane NH stretches are used daily by over 1 lakh passenger car units (PCUs).

The decision to fast-track the process of acquisition of approximately 219 hectares of land needed for the 45-metre-wide corridor, so that the land acquisition committee (LAC) can approve it and a 3(a) notification can be issued, is being seen in the light of the review meeting of south Indian States, held here a week ago and chaired by NHAI Chairperson Alka Upadhaya. The agency also views the two congested and largely urban NH corridors where bottlenecked junctions abound as an impediment to the smooth and fast transit of cargo between ports, it is learnt.

With vehicles jostling for space and moving at relatively very low speeds on the NH Bypass and the Edappally-Angamaly highway, the NHAI sees Kochi as among the major choking points in the country’s NH network. It is in this context that efforts are on under the Bharatmala Pariyojana’s national corridor efficiency improvement project to hasten steps to realise the Kundannur-Angamaly greenfield NH that is slated to begin south of Kundannur and end at Karayamparambu, north of Angamaly.

The agency is also aware of the difficulty in widening the NH, since it is flanked by the entry/exit of Kochi metro stations at a distance of every kilometre, it is learnt.

On its part, the State government is expected to hand over 25% of the land acquisition cost (the viability gap funding) to the NHAI, considering that land value is much higher in Kerala. The NHAI is, in the meantime, considering a proposal for a spur road from the proposed NH corridor to the alignment of the Thripunithura Bypass, for which land was acquired around three decades ago. Three MPs had raised the demand to include the alignment in the Kundannur-Angamaly NH corridor, considering the plight of around 200 landowners who are unable to sell their land or avail loans for urgent use by using land as security.