The detailed project report (DPR) for the 44-km-long Kundannoor-Angamaly access-controlled greenfield NH Bypass will be readied in five months, official sources said.
Land acquisition and other aspects of the flyover will follow suit, once people’s representatives are apprised of the various components of the project, which is aimed at decongesting the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 Bypass and the Edappally-Angamaly NH 66 corridor. The corridor will have a design speed of 100 km per hour, like the Ahmedabad-Baroda Express Highway, they added.
A total of 8 km on the proposed NH Bypass will be elevated, including flyovers at busy corridors. Considering the relatively higher price of land in Kerala, the State government is expected to pool in with 25% of the cost (being the viability gap funding) to acquire approximately 219 hectares for the project to ready a 45-metre-wide NH to bypass Kochi city. Tenders for the project will be finalised in March 2022, while the construction period will be between 24 to 30 months after land is acquired.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had readied a 3(a) notification to begin preparatory work for the project. The greenfield NH Bypass is slated to begin south of Kundannoor Junction and end at Karayamparambu near Angamaly. It will be executed simultaneously with a project to widen the Karayamparambu-Thrissur NH stretch into a six-lane one.
Being an access-controlled NH, vehicles will not be permitted direct access. Motorists will have to rely on underpasses to turn towards side roads.
The compensation package under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 will include fair value of land that will be acquired, 100% solatium and value based on ‘multiplication factor’. The factor will be higher in rural areas than in urban parts.
