The State government must give serious thought to building a flyover at Vyttila to link SA Road with Thripunithura, since the upcoming six-lane flyover over the NH Bypass will not solve even 30% of the traffic congestion at the junction, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Principal Advisor of E. Sreedharan said.
“I don’t understand why ₹78 crore of State funds is being spent on a non-solution. The whole thing of decongesting Vyttila was not handled in a diplomatic manner. It is under this circumstance that I informed the State government three months ago that arrangements must be made to build a flyover in the east-west direction towards Thripunithura too, perpendicular to the upcoming flyover. The biggest junction in Kerala needs three-level elevated structures, including the metro, to address traffic chaos,” he told The Hindu on Thursday.
Mr. Sreedharan expressed dismay at the design of the flyover and other steps being taken to decongest Vyttila not being shared with members of the public. “Moreover, I don’t understand why the State government is building the flyover since the NHAI owns the bypass. Issues like NHAI hiking toll on bypass users [in proportion to the flyover cost] can be overcome if the State bargains with the Centre,” he said.
East-west flyover
He said that the SA Road-Thripunithura flyover must begin from SA Road and end well beyond the point where buses exit the Vyttila hub. This can be built provided the height of the upcoming flyover is reduced by a metre or so. For this, the thickness of the deck must be lessened. All this can be done now since the bypass flyover is only at the piling stage. The pillars to support the Thripunithura flyover must be incorporated in the design, the Metroman said.
“From SA Road, the structure can go beneath the metro viaduct up to Vyttila Junction, from where the metro turns left and proceeds to Thripunithura through the hub. Construction of an underpass in the east-west direction is impractical, since metro pillars have already come up on SA Road, and their foundation will have to be disturbed. An underpass might also get flooded when it rains. I have been told by the State government that a committee has been appointed to study the flyover proposal,” Mr. Sreedharan said.
Call for multi-tier flyover
Earlier in the day, representatives of Vyttila Junction Viksana Janakiya Samiti met Mr. Sreedharan. Its representative Shameer Abdullah, who came up with a multi-tier flyover structure proposal to decongest Vyttila, said that the upcoming flyover catered only for vehicles moving in the northern and southern directions, while vehicles to and from 13 other roads / directions would be caught up in traffic signals beneath. “The government must take a serious look at the issue, since the Edappally flyover has been unable to decongest that junction,” Mr. Abdullah said.
