With no end in sight to the traffic chaos in Seaport-Airport Road, NATPAC would submit a study report in September-end to the government on decongesting the 2-km Olimugal Junction-Collectorate Junction corridor, the bottlenecked portion on the road where traffic snarls are acute.
This follows a survey carried out recently by NATPAC, at the behest of Thrikkakara Development Forum, MVD, and the Thrikkakara Municipality. With PWD (Roads wing) not widening the Bharat Matha College-Irumpanam stretch on the road, the Thrikkakara Vikasana Samity had earlier this year suggested the construction of a flyover in the Olimugal-CSEZ corridor, to ensure steady and safe movement of motorists and pedestrians. It also demanded widening of narrow junctions prior to the commencement of piling for Kochi Metro’s Kakkanad extension.
“Our focus will be on decongesting five junctions in the corridor, for which clock-wise movement of vehicles will help. This will also do away with the need for signals at junctions,” said B. Anish Kini, scientist in charge of the Kochi regional centre of NATPAC.
Seventy students from SCMS Engineering College garnered traffic-pattern details as part of the survey. This included details such as the number of vehicles passing through a point at a given time span, the number of heavy, medium, light and other vehicles, and the time they took to cover a specific distance, said M.S. Anilkumar, general convenor of Thrikkakara Vikasana Samity.
Ernakulam RTO, G. Anantakrishnan, Chairperson of Thrikkakara Municipality Radhamani Pillai, office-bearers of residents’ associations, trade bodies, and civil defence personnel attended the deliberations that were held following the survey. They suggested widening the tarred portion of the carriageway wherever possible, reinforcing road shoulders, and making optimal use of the underutilised land that had been acquired at 30-metre-width two decades ago by completing the long-overdue development of Seaport-Airport Road as a four-lane stretch.
This comes in the wake of concerns that the State government is soft pedalling on providing funds to build a flyover at Collectorate Junction and to widen the Bharat Matha College-Irumpanam stretch where land is available.
The Seaport-Airport Road is used daily by a few thousand lorries that ferry fuel, chemicals, LPG and other hazardous cargo, and also by educational institution buses and other vehicles. The Kochi Metro’s viaduct would pass through one side of the road, before turning towards Infopark.
