Chitoor Road will become the first white-topped road within Kochi Corporation area, if everything goes according to plan.
A proposal was under active consideration to convert the busy stretch into a model road by relaying the 3-km stretch from Kacheripady to Valanjambalam using ultra-thin concrete, said Corporation works standing committee chairman P.M. Harris. “Budgetary allocation may be needed in case plan funds are insufficient. The committee will include it in the list of budgetary proposals,” he said.
Similar durable, sustainable methods to resurface roads that suffer damage due to waterlogging and heavy traffic will be tried out in other parts of the city and in West Kochi at a later stage. Former NATPAC director and highway engineering expert B.G. Sreedevi said the cost of white-topping might be approximately 20% higher than that of bitumen roads. But the lifecycle cost is much lower since even ultra-thin concrete paving lasts 15 years or longer, if preventive maintenance is done.
Currently, the HMT Junction-Government Medical College, Kalamassery Road is the sole major white-topped stretch in the district.
‘Good solution’
“It is a very encouraging sign that the Kochi Corporation has come up with the proposal. It is a good solution to overcome heavy traffic and also inadequate or improper drainage which adversely affect the life of roads. It does not need regular maintenance too. On its part, the civic agency must lay ducts on the side to route cables and pipelines, doing away with the need to dig the road. Cross ducts too must be laid across the road, to accommodate such utilities. Moreover, footpaths must be built to ensure pedestrian safety,” said Ms. Sreedevi.
Reacting to the proposal, fomer Mayor K J Sohan said thin and ultra-thin roads were common in metropolitan cities and in States such as Rajasthan and Gujarat. “The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has stated norms for this. The technology can be used to overlay the main avenue at Panampilly Nagar, Stadium Link Road, etc., since they do not have utilities underneath. This also lessens the need for quarrying since frequent resurfacing using bitumen needs huge volume of aggregate.”
He suggested the availing of soft loans to white-top busy but vulnerable roads in the city.
