Benny Behanan and Thomas Chazhikadan, MPs, met National Highways Authority of India Chairman Santosh Yadav on Tuesday and demanded a spur road connecting the Kochi-Theni greenfield NH 85 corridor with land that had been acquired approximately 30 years ago by PWD (NH wing) for the yet-to-be-realised Thripunithura Bypass.
The spur road would help establish direct connectivity from the proposed greenfield corridor to Tripunithura town. Mr Yadav said that NHAI could look into it if land was made available and that he would depute officials with the task of studying the project and submitting a report.
Back in 2021, the NHAI had readied a tentative alignment for the greenfield NH corridor, by including areas that had been acquired over three decades ago for the Tripunithura Bypass. The 45-m wide corridor will take off a kilometre south of Kundannoor Junction, to prevent congestion at the junction and is aimed at establishing port-to-port connectivity between Kochi and Tuticorin through Munnar and Theni.
The PWD (NH Wing) which readied the alignment for the 8.50-km-long Thripunithura bypass, had requested the NHAI that the changed alignment of the Kochi-Munnar NH should pass through the alignment that had been finalised 30 years ago for the bypass project, since there would be no need to acquire land afresh in many of the areas that had been frozen for the Thripunithura bypass project.
While land owners who surrendered land in the 3.44-km Mattakuzhi-Thiruvankulam stretch were keen on road connectivity, those whose plots were yet to be acquired were uncertain whether the NHAI would include that portion of the alignment in the alignment for the proposed NH corridor. Many people have not been compensated, although their lands were frozen to be acquired at a later stage. They were unable to sell off lands or even modify their houses during the past over 30 years, as a result.
Residents and other land owners demanded a spur road, after the NHAI made it clear in its final alignment of the greenfield NH corridor that it would be difficult to include the Tripunithura Bypass alignment in the corridor, to avoid curves.
