CoRWA summit to discuss NH 66 bypass woes, delay in Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension

The NH bypass caters to over a lakh passenger car units daily.

The 13th conference of the Confederation of Residents Welfare Associations (CoRWA), the national-level apex body for residents welfare associations, to be held at the Ernakulam Town Hall on November 14 and 15, will discuss, among other issues, the inadequate and shoddy condition of public infrastructure, especially the state of national highway (NH) corridors such as the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 bypass, and the inordinate delay in commissioning the Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension.

This comes amid apprehensions that the 17-km-long Edappally-Aroor NH bypass, the busiest and most congested stretch of NH 66, will turn into a bottleneck once the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) completes the six-laning of the rest of NH 66 in Keralam by 2028. There are fears that the four-lane NH bypass will have to cater to the influx of vehicles from the 10-lane Thuravoor-Aroor stretch, both from the six-lane, 13-km-long elevated highway and from the four-lane NH corridor beneath it.

Likewise, tens of thousands of vehicles from the six-lane Guruvayur-Edappally NH 66 corridor, flanked by two-lane service roads on either side, will have to jostle for space once they enter the four-lane NH bypass in Kochi.

Interestingly, NHAI officials said the agency’s focus had shifted from the six-lane elevated highway it had considered building along the NH bypass as a continuation of the Thuravoor-Aroor elevated highway to the 50-km Kochi Outer Ring Road (ORR) project, whose 3A notification is awaited.

Expressing dismay at the turn of events and the ‘neglect’ of the NH bypass, which caters to over a lakh passenger car units daily, P. Rangadasa Prabhu, president of the Ernakulam District Residents Associations’ Apex Council (EDRAAC), questioned how vehicles from the 10-lane stretches on either side would be able to pass through the bottlenecked four-lane stretch of NH 66.

“Making matters worse, the NHAI has not widened the Vyttila railway overbridge, despite huge traffic snarls being the norm on its southern side, where vehicles coming in five lanes [from the three-lane flyover and the two-lane service road] have to squeeze into the two-lane bridge. These issues relating to grossly inadequate road infrastructure will be discussed at the CoRWA meeting and also taken up with the NHAI,” he added.

EDRAAC district vice-president D.G. Suresh said the NHAI should have taken remedial measures, such as widening the NH bypass or building an elevated highway, given the hefty toll it collects from motorists using the stretch. Commuters and pedestrians would now have to endure hardships as traffic snarls in the corridor were expected to worsen.

The NHAI should also have completed the Kochi ORR by now, considering the sharp increase in the number of passenger and goods vehicles in the region. Such NH-related issues and the inordinate delay in completing the Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension would be taken up at the CoRWA summit, which would be inaugurated by Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, he added.