Widening of two narrow roads taking off from Vyttila in limbo-OxBig News Network

The traffic block witnessed on the Vyttila-Kunnara Park stretch on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Even as the Motor Vehicles department (MVD) and the traffic police have initiated steps to decongest Vyttila and other congested junctions on the NH 66 bypass, there is increasing concern at the Public Works department (Roads wing) not initiating action to widen the narrow Vyttila-Kunnara Park corridor and also Kaniampuzha Road that leads from the NH bypass to the Vyttila Mobility Hub.

No steps have been taken to widen the bottlenecked free-left turns from the bypass towards the mobility hub and the free-left turn at Kundannur Junction towards Maradu. Subsequently, the two junctions on the bypass continue to be traffic choking points, despite the PWD (NH wing) constructing six-lane flyovers at the junction in early 2021. Pedestrians too have a harrowing time due to this.

Sources in the MVD and the police said that their role would be limited to reducing the width of the roundabout and the chipping away of the corners of the two medians beneath the flyover in order to create a pair of U-turns to streamline traffic flow. “The PWD and the National Highways Authority of India [NHAI] must take steps to widen free-left turns, while the PWD must increase the width of the carriageway of the Vyttila-Kunnara Park corridor and also of Kaniampuzha Road in order to decongest Vyttila and Kundannur junctions,” they said.

Expressing disappointment at the State government doing precious little to decongest Vyttila, Thampy V.R., chairman of Vyttila United Forum, said traffic reforms and a mass memorandum signed by 4,800 people that the forum had submitted over five years ago to the government to streamline traffic flow at the junction had fallen on deaf ears. “The traffic reforms included relocating of the police watch tower further towards SA Road and the carving out of a roundabout around the relocated tower. In addition, buses and other vehicles from SA Road must be allowed to proceed straight to the Vyttila Mobility Hub.”

The least that the government and the PWD ought to do is to widen the bellmouth of junctions, mainly the free-left turn towards Kaniampuzha Road where buses and other heavy vehicles from the bypass struggle to turn, he added.

Meanwhile, sources in the Kochi Corporation said the onus of redeveloping Vyttila and Kundannur junctions remained with the State government, especially since it failed to make optimal use of available land when the flyovers were built in 2021.

PWD officials said the government ought to allot funds to widen the Vyttila-Kunnara Park corridor and Kaniampuzha Road. In every Budget, nothing but a token sum is earmarked to develop them, despite the dire need to widen them to decongest Vyttila, they added.