NATPAC to submit proposals to decongest Vyttila this month

Long-term plan may involve land acquisition

The Vyttila flyover, constructed in 2021, caters for just about 30 per cent of the vehicles that use the junction, say traffic planners.   | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) would submit short and long-term plans to decongest the Vyttila Junction to the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) this month.

A short-term plan would be submitted in a week’s time to be followed by a long-term plan, which would entail land acquisition, by month-end, it is learnt. The KIIFB would vet the plan following which the government is expected to announce the proposals that will be implemented to decongest what is the busiest junction in the State, which is used daily by over a lakh passenger car units.

The government entrusted the NATPAC with the task of finding a way out of the traffic quagmire after traffic planners rued that the six-lane conventional flyover constructed in 2021 by the Public Works Department (NH wing) catered for just about 30 per cent of the vehicles that used the junction.

“The PWD decided to go ahead with a conventional design even as many senior officials in the department batted for a clover-leaf shaped flyover to find a lasting solution to snarls at the junction. This could have been realised by much the same time as the flyover was commissioned in January 2021 if the State government had permitted minimal land acquisition. With the flyover failing to decongest the junction, much more land than was required would now have to be acquired to streamline the flow of vehicles,” informed sources said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) too faltered since it permitted the PWD, the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala and Kochi Metro Rail Limited to build flyovers of their choice at four junctions on the 16-km Edappally-Aroor NH Bypass. A better and sustainable option would have been to ready an elevated NH on the corridor, which needed a holistic and coordinated approach, they added.

Interestingly, the NHAI has opted for a four-lane elevated NH on the Aroor-Thuravur stretch although the number of vehicles there is relatively lesser than on the Edappally-Aroor stretch. It is yet to finalise a proposal to six-lane the entire Edappally-Aroor stretch despite the burgeoning and chaotic traffic.