Redevelopment works of Container Road nearing completion

NHAI nears completion of ₹130-crore Container Road redevelopment, addressing safety concerns with street lights, reflectors, and bridge improvements.

The ₹130-crore worth redevelopment works of Container Road (NH 966A) are nearing completion, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) completing works on 14 km of the 17-km-long corridor, it is learnt.

The agency is also in the process of installing over 1,100 street lights in the corridor where accidents are common, especially at night. Crimes and dumping of garbage into the backwaters too had become common, mainly due to the absence of street lights in the largely-isolated corridor. Over the past decade, dozens of two-wheeler riders and others had died in accidents on the stretch primarily due to the absence of street lights, illegal parking by container lorries, and lack of reflectors.

Non-governmental organisations and the Container Road Vehicle Travellers’ Association had flagged the problems posed by the lack of street lights and inadequate reflectors on the stretch.

Over the past year, parts of the carriageway that had been reclaimed from the backwaters and the approach portions of bridges in the corridor were scooped out and resurfaced to ensure their durability and to prevent sinking. This in itself would provide motorists with a comfortable and safe ride through the NH corridor that links Kalamassery on the Angamaly-Edappally NH 544 with the Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal, official sources said.

The ongoing redevelopment works mark the first major initiative in the corridor, which was commissioned in 2015. Service roads totalling 10.40 km also are being renovated.

Adequate number of reflectors are being installed in the corridor, apart from concrete guide posts and metal crash barriers at embankments. These, in addition to street lights, would be of considerable help to motorists at night, the sources said.

The corridor has a total of 12 major bridges, one minor bridge, and 35 culverts. “Micro-concreting is being done to reinforce their pedestals, while the bearings, approach slabs [which used to sink, reportedly due to clayey soil beneath], and expansion joints of the bridges are being replaced,” the sources added.