₹8.50 crore handed over to PWD to upgrade more traffic diversion roads from Aroor-Thuravur corridor

NHAI allocates ₹8.50 crore to upgrade diversion roads for upcoming elevated highway on Aroor-Thuravur NH 66 corridor.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has handed over ₹8.50 crore to the Public Works department (PWD) to upgrade traffic diversion roads from the 13-km Aroor-Thuravur NH 66 corridor, where an elevated highway is expected to be commissioned by February 2026.

This comes in the wake of traffic snarls and accidents in the corridor that was barricaded in early 2024 to build a six-lane elevated highway. With motorists and pedestrians complaining of frequent snarls in the corridor, the NHAI and the district administrations of Alappuzha and Ernakulam held meetings, following which an action plan was readied to divert, among others, goods carriers from the corridor. They were directed to rely mainly on MC Road that runs largely parallel to NH 66, while a few roads that took off from the national highway were upgraded and bottlenecks posed by electric posts and other structures cleared to cater for additional number of vehicles.

It was subsequently decided to hand over the additional ₹8.50 crore to the PWD to upgrade more diversion roads. The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has, in the meantime, sought ₹30 crore to relocate drinking water pipelines from the NH corridor. The earlier estimate for the purpose was ₹7 crore, sources said.

Meanwhile, the NHAI has completed erecting piers for the elevated highway in the corridor, while the launch of girders is under way. A total of over 130 deck slabs have also been installed. Altogether, the agency has completed 55% of the work on the elevated highway, while this would go up to 75% by August. Simultaneously, the agency has begun building drains on either side of the corridor, it is learnt.

Moving further south, six-laning work is over in 8 km of the 38-km-long Thuravur-Paravur NH corridor. This is apart from completing 80% of the widening work of the Alappuzha Bypass, thanks to dredged sand being made available from the Vembanad backwaters. The six-laning of the stretch is expected to be completed by March 2026, sources said.