Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala Limited (RBDCK) has sought ₹190 crore for widening the congested and accident-prone 11.30-km-long Seaport-Airport Road into a four-lane stretch.
Incidentally, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of goods carriers and tanker lorries on the stretch.
The stretch has the potential to decongest the Edapally-Kundannoor NH Bypass too. Currently, only the 2.40-km-long HMT Junction-Bharata Matha College stretch is four-lane.
“We had recently sent a revised estimate to the State government, seeking funds to widen the pending 8.90-km stretch. This includes the cost of land acquisition in the vicinity of Chitrapuzha and Irumpanam bridges. The two bridges too will be widened as part of the package. The widening process will get an impetus if it is included in the KIIFB [Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board] scheme,” an RBDCK official said.
The ₹190-crore estimate also includes expenses for constructing retaining walls at places with level difference between roads. Service roads have been ruled out since land is available only at a width of 25 m to 30 m. Service roads have to be at least 45-m wide. A four-lane carriageway needs 14-m-wide space and a metre’s width for the central median. There will also be 1.5-m-wide paved shoulders on either wide for pedestrians.
RBDCK had taken over the road from the PWD which owned the Irumpanam-Kalamassery district road. With heavy goods vehicles expected to be diverted through Seaport-Airport Road from HMT Junction owing to flyover construction at Vyttila and Kundannoor, traffic snarls on the two-lane road is expected to worsen. Even now, chaos reigns at Collectorate, Olimukal, and other narrow junctions in the corridor.
The road was constructed in 2003 by RBDCK at a cost of ₹22 crore availed as loan from HUDCO. The stretch has not been resurfaced in the last 14 years. Potholes and undulations over bridges and near Sunrise Hospital have been slowing down traffic. Moreover, the absence of streetlights and cats-eye reflectors poses danger to motorists and pedestrians.
Though RBDCK is keen that KMRL should widen the Collectorate Junction-Infopark stretch, sources in the metro agency said that it was best that RBDCK widened the entire corridor.
