NHAI hastens Rs.5,648 cr highway project

The NHAI has approved an alignment for the six-lane, access-controlled NH bypass between Angamaly and Kundannoor entailing an investment of Rs.5,648 crore. It will begin 2 km north of Angamaly on NH-544 and ends 1.5 km south of Kundannoor on NH-66, passing through Perumbavoor and Thripunithura areas and aimed at decongesting the Edappally-Kundannoor NH Bypass and the Edappally-Angamaly NH corridor. Land acquisition for 46-km corridor will begin in the next few months as the existing four-lane corridors cannot handle such traffic. This works out to approximately Rs.123 crore per km, including cost of acquiring around 268 hectares of land, said NHAI sources that the alignment through Perumbavoor and Thripunithura was preferred over two other alignments — one running nearer to Kochi city and another located further east. The alignment was chosen following a presentation of DPR by Louis Berger on all the three alignments. The proposed bypass is 13 km longer than the congested 33-km Angamaly-Kundannoor corridor but commuters can reach faster since the proposed corridor would have a designed speed of 100 km per hour.