The development of the 3.6-km NH Bypass-Thammanam-Pullepady-M.G. Road as a four-lane stretch is yet to take off due to the inordinate delay in finalising its alignment.
The road’s development is also hamstrung by the Revenue department’s delay in handing over the stretch to the Public Works department (PWD), the agency that will own the road. This has left landowners on the corridor and Ernakulam District Residents’ Associations’ Apex Council (EDRAAC), that has been demanding fast-tracking of the road’s development, high and dry.
The over three-decade-old stalemate over developing the road that would considerably lessen traffic congestion at Palarivattom and Vyttila, and also decongest S.A. Road and Banerjee Road, prompted people to ponder why Kochi was being ignored, while roads were being developed and flyovers were being built to cater to increasing number of vehicles in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, said Jayakumar S. Das, a landowner in the Thammanam-Pullepady corridor.
