Faced with public wrath over the dilapidated condition of Vyttila rail overbridge’s underpass, the Public Works Department (NH wing) has drawn up a plan to resurface it using concrete paver blocks in a week’s time.
The Department had come under fire for the shoddy condition of the underpass — the sole link from the city to Thripunithura and Vyttila Mobility Hub, through which buses and other vehicles are being diverted from the junction where flyover work is under way.
Its approach road from Ponnurunni temple and the exit on the eastern side too are in very bad condition, causing traffic hold-ups beyond Ponnurunni bridge and on the Vyttila-Ponnurunni corridor.
Fed up with PWD’s apathy, police personnel and members of the public filled huge potholes using aggregate, debris and mud. This gave away in the rains. Pedestrians too were unable to use the underpass due to the mess. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which owns the NH Bypass, had issued notices to the PWD to ensure a motorable carriageway at the junction, on roads leading to it and the underpass, when the condition of roads began to deteriorate in June.
Residents associations and people’s representatives were critical of the PWD doing little to streamline the movement of vehicles and pedestrians through the narrow underpass, though its superintending engineer office is located less than 20 metres away. The Department also failed to extend the service road and hew out a wider underpass nearer to the railway line where space is available.
Meanwhile, the PWD has covered more areas at Vyttila Junction and at Ponnurunni using paver blocks. “These blocks will be laid on the underpass too, while the rest of the potholed stretches on the bypass and service roads will be tar-coated once we get two rainless days,” said an engineer of the Department.
He said the service road in front of the Siva Subramania temple at Vyttila too would be raised and integrated with the NH Bypass to smoothen vehicle flow, as was done on the opposite side of the road. It will put an end to illegal parking by autorickshaws, cars and buses at the beginning of the service road.
Slip roads
The Department is also gearing up to resume construction of retaining walls on the junction’s northern side, to build slip roads. Vehicles will be diverted through the two-lane slip roads when barricades are extended on the Palarivattom side to construct approach spans for the flyover.
