In what has been termed as a shot in the arm for tourists and others travelling in the Kochi (Kundannoor)-Munnar corridor, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has sanctioned a ₹790-crore project to develop the 121-km narrow NH 85 stretch as a two-lane corridor with paved shoulders and retention walls wherever required to avert landslides.
Greenfield NH
Further augmenting connectivity on the route would be a 151-km four-lane Greenfield NH in the Kochi-Munnar-Theni corridor, whose detailed project report is expected to be ready by early 2023, following which the agency is expected to be included in its work schedule for the year. The road project that would take off from the south of Kundannoor Junction is estimated to cost approximately ₹3,000 crore. The alignment would pass through vacant or least built-up spaces in order to avoid curves and ensure speedy land acquisition. The four-lane NH will be flanked by service roads on either side.
Referring to the development of Kochi-Munnar as a full-fledged two-lane corridor, official sources said the paved shoulders and retention walls will be in addition to drains on either side. The work will begin in January 2023 and the project would be completed in another 30 months, by mid-2025. Small tracts of land will be acquired to ensure adequate width and to construct retention walls. A new bridge would be built at Neriamanagalam, since the existing one built during the British era is a bottleneck on the corridor.
Every year, the high ranges through which the road passes encounter landslips, entailing heavy investment for damage-control measures which are often times not foolproof. This is in addition to vehicular traffic being banned for days together, cutting off residents from the mainland.
“Once completed, tourists and others are expected to take the corridor that would be redeveloped, while commercial traffic like goods carriers would take the Greenfield NH which is part of the initiative to improve connectivity between Kochi and Tuticorin ports and would take a different alignment,” sources said.
Commuting along the to-be-redeveloped corridor can be much faster if the Public Works department readied bypasses at congested towns like Thripunithura, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam, they added.
