Flyover project may be delayed

Chaos at Vyttila Junction likely to continue; 18-month deadline for project to end in May

January 29, 2019 12:13 am | Updated 12:13 am IST - Kochi

The Vyttila flyover project is progressing at a slow pace because of the alleged delay in readying slip roads and raising service roads.

The Vyttila flyover project is progressing at a slow pace because of the alleged delay in readying slip roads and raising service roads.

Commuters through Vyttila would have to put up with traffic snarls for another eight months, since the flyover at the junction will in all probability be commissioned only in September.

The six-lane flyover here will thus overshoot the 18-month deadline that would expire in May. Officials of PWD (NH wing) cited a host of reasons, including space constraints at the busiest junction in the State and Kochi metro’s civil works that are going on simultaneously at the junction, as reasons for the delay.

Sources in the department confided that commissioning the flyover would have adhered to the May deadline if slip roads, whose works are under way on the Palarivattom side, had been built before barricading the junction for piling in December 2017. Similarly, service roads on the Aroor side should have been raised to the level of NH bypass beforehand. Huge traffic snarls on different sides of the junction have been attributed to PWD (NH wing) not readying the slip roads and raising service roads. The situation is worse on the Palarivattom-Vyttila-Kundannoor corridor, where vehicles have to jostle for space outside the barricades. Only single-lane traffic is possible through the narrow service road in front of Vyttila temple, since the entire main carriageway of NH bypass has been either barricaded or dug up to construct the approach road to the upcoming flyover.

“We will shortly relocate the drain to the extreme end of the service road and raise the road, opening up a little more space for vehicles. Work on the slip roads will be completed by mid-February, while service roads will be raised within a week. Movement of vehicles can be further streamlined if traffic police's watch tower at the junction is relocated,” PWD officials said.

Approximately 50% work on the six-lane Vyttila flyover is over, 13 months since work began in December 2017. Casting of a few girders at the work site suffered delay due to a month’s delay in launching Kochi metro girders across the junction, they said. As for the six-lane Kundannoor flyover, 37% of work is over. But girder launch is yet to begin, though piling began in March 2018. A total of six girders have been cast. The structure is slated for commissioning in March 2020.

The pathetic condition of the service road in front of Hotel Crown Plaza on the southern side of Kundannoor continues to be a nightmare for commuters and pedestrians. Apart from severe undulations, they have to endure dust from the trenched service road. The stretch can be resurfaced only after a KWA pipeline, which was relocated from the area, is interconnected and tested, PWD officials said.

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