With the opening of the rebuilt Palarivattom flyover on Sunday, vehicles moving along Civil Line Road are being diverted through a pair of lanes hewed out beneath the flyover, around 80 metres on either side of the central span.
This does away with the need for a signal system at the busy junction on the NH Bypass, while ensuring continuous flow of vehicles on the Palarivattom-Kakkanad stretch and back. This unique method of directing traffic was finalised earlier this year, by officials of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the city traffic police (East).
Height gauge
A pair of height gauges have been set up on either side of the flyover, to prevent vehicles taller than four metres entering the lanes to take a turn. Taller vehicles will have to take a turn at the nearest U-turns available on the northern and southern side of the flyover. “This traffic arrangement has come out well, and sign boards have been erected to direct motorists along the path,” said DMRC Chief Engineer G. Keshava Chandran, who oversaw the reconstruction of the flyover.
He was one among the two DMRC Chief Engineers who oversaw the Kochi metro work. The toughest work in the metro corridor — construction of a 90-metre-long balanced cantilever structure (an elevated viaduct sans pillars) over railway tracks at the Ernakulam Junction railway station — was under his direct supervision. The structure won the Sarvamangalam Merit Award 2019 of the Association of Consulting Civil Engineers.
Earlier, while working in the Railways, he oversaw the construction of the 4.62-km-long railway overbridge built over the Vembanad backwaters to establish railway connectivity from mainland Ernakulam to the Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal. This second-longest railway bridge in the country went on to bag three awards. He was handpicked by DMRC Principal Adviser E. Sreedharan to oversee the Palarivattom flyover reconstruction.
Interestingly, Mr. Keshava Chandran’s father Gopinathan Nair too was an engineer in the Railway. During his inspection of the Palarivattom flyover on Thursday, Mr. Sreedharan went back in time and spoke of how Mr. Nair was part of the team that assisted him in rebuilding the Pamban Bridge in record time.
Mr. Chandran is currently on deputation with DMRC, from Kerala Railway Development Corporation Limited, where he was General Manager.