more-in The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has zeroed in on an alignment for the six-lane, access-controlled NH Bypass it proposes between Angamaly and Kundannoor. It will begin 2 km north of Angamaly on NH 544 and end 1.5 km south of Kundannoor on NH 66, passing through Perumbavoor and Thripunithura. The aim is to decongest the Edappally-Kundannoor NH Bypass and the Edappally-Angamaly NH corridor, where daily passenger car units (PCUs) exceeded the 80,000 mark many years ago. The largely four-lane corridors cannot handle such traffic. Estimated cost “The project cost for hewing out the 46-km corridor has been pegged at ?5,648 crore. This works out to approximately ?123 crore per km, including cost of acquiring around 268 hectares of land,” said NHAI sources. The alignment through Perumbavoor and Thripunithura was preferred over two other alignments — one running nearer to Kochi city and another located further east, at a meeting convened by District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla here on Saturday. It was attended by MLAs of Angamaly, Aluva, Perumbavoor, Thrikkakara and Piravom, apart from L.S. Rajpurohit, Kochi Project Director of the NHAI. Project reports The alignment was chosen following a presentation by Detailed Project Report (DPR) consultant Louis Berger on all the three alignments. It was preferred by those who attended the meeting based on its engineering, social and environmental aspects. Aspects such as project cost, extent of land acquisition, buildings to be taken over and travel time were considered. 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 design speed of 100 km per hour. “Moreover, it will have median cuttings only every 2 km, enabling faster and safer commuting. The bypass will also be flanked by seven-metre-wide service roads on both sides to cater to local traffic,” said Mr. Rajpurohit. 8 flyovers The proposed corridor will consist of two rail overbridges and eight flyovers. “With MLAs and others approving the proposed greenfield alignment, a detailed survey of traffic, topography etc., will be undertaken by the consultant. This will shed light on the number of plots that will have to be acquired, within a month. It will then be sent to the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways and the State government,” sources said. Land acquisition will begin in another 10 months. The three alignment options were proposed after conducting traffic study and drone survey to identify least built-up or populated areas.

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