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Sajeev Kumar V

The four-lane, 30-km highway from Kochi port to the Nedumbassery airport will be developed at an estimated investment of around Rs 200 crore, to help improve the transport infrastructure in the State. — K. K. Mustafah

AS PART of the Kerala Government's bid to improve infrastructure for trade and industry, the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala Ltd (RBDCK), a State Government undertaking, has executed the first phase of the Airport-Seaport Highway Project connecting the Cochin International Airport Ltd to the Kochi port via the Cochin Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

The Rs 28-crore first phase included a 13-km highway between HMT Kalamassery and Kochi Refineries Ltd, and a railway overbridge at Irumpanam.

The work was jointly financed by RBDCK, the Union Commerce Ministry, the Ministry of Transport's Central Road Fund Scheme, and the Railways.

The total length of the Airport-Seaport Highway Project is about 30 km. and is proposed to be developed in three phases at an estimated investment of around Rs 200 crore, to help improve the transport infrastructure in the State.

The project has been proposed as a four-lane highway with a design speed of 100 km/hr.

Once complete, the highway, which will pass through the SEZ and connect such major industrial units as HMT, FACT, and KRL as also the various oil terminals at Irumpanam, will boost the flow of cargo traffic both from the port and the airport.

The second phase of the project will begin from the KRL Junction to the proposed NH 49 by-pass. Land acquisition is on and the work will be executed within one year of the completion of land acquisition.

The third phase of the project will be to four lane the road, depending on the volume of traffic.

The project road also connects the industrial belt of HMT, Kinfra IT parks, and the Cochin Division of FACT before joining the NH 49 by-pass east of Kundanoor Junction. From Kundanoor Junction of NH 47 A, it leads up to Kochi port.

The 13-km, two-lane road constructed in the first phase will act as a by-pass to the NH 47 within the Kochi city limits. The by-pass will be important for movement of hazardous cargo.

Petroleum tankers from Irumpanam oil terminals, a cause of concern to the district authorities, can now move north up to Kalamassery without entering the city.

To ensure a smooth and durable road, natural rubber modified bitumen (NRMB) is to be used. The Central Road Research Institute and Rubber Board had selected this road for the performance evaluation study of NRMB. This will be the longest stretch of fully rubberised road in Kerala.

The design and construction of the road are of international standards.

The design life of the road is 15 years with overlays at five-year intervals.

To ensure good riding quality, the unevenness of each layer has been monitored and it is ensured that the pavement rough index is within the desired standard of 200 mm/km.

Laid using the state-of-the-art technology and equipment such as hydrostatic sensor pavers, the highway promises to be the smoothest in the State.

Marked and painted with retro-reflective thermoplastic paint, and with blue signboards, the road is extremely user-friendly.

The project road, on completion of all stretches, is expected to ease the pressure on NH 47 especially where it takes more than an hour for a heavy vehicle from the airport to reach the Kochi port.

Once this highway becomes operational, this distance could be covered in less than 30 minutes even at 60 kmph.

RBDCK was constituted in 1999 by the Kerala Government to boost infrastructure.

Its objectives include identification of projects relating to highways, bridges, underground railroads, etc., for implementation either directly by itself or under BOT schemes.

There are half-a-dozen new road development projects, including the much-talked-about Kerala Expressway, on which preliminary work is on.

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