Kerala gets ₹3,782-cr coastal road upgrade

Under Bharatmala Pariyojana Program, the ministry of road transport & highways (MORTH) has initiated an ambitious 192 km road project to connect ports in the state with national highways at a whopping investment of ₹3,782 crore. The projects, which are being launched by NHAI, will provide direct connectivity to Vizhinjam, Thankassery, Alappuzha, Kochi, Munambam, Ponnani, Beypore and Azheekkal ports to the nearest highway by matching national highway standards. The Union transport minister gave in-principle approval to include the project under the Bharatmala scheme, thus, all ports in the state will get an improved connectivity, principal secretary, PWD, G Kamalavardhana Rao said, elaborating that different links in the proposed coastal highway had been identified for development under port connectivity for which NHAI has been tasked to prepare DPR for the widening of the proposed stretches with an average width of the road will be 12 m. Multimodal connectivity of goods can be achieved once the coastal highway is fully operational since the railway line is quite near and parallel to the coastal highway, he added.