The inclusion of 6 corridors of Highways in Bharatmala project will take the State on the path to progress.

Controversies over highway development have been part of Kerala’s development debate but, even as such debates go on, Kerala’s highways are poised for a makeover. Indicating as much, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has included 1,078 km of National Highways and State Highways for upgrade under its Bharatmala project.

Once implemented, the project would see speedier and efficient movement of men and materials and overall development of the State’s road network as it gets linked to the 42,000-km national economic corridors and inter-corridors, possibly triggering new investment flows. What is taking shape is a north-south four-lane and six-lane corridor, with a length of 687 km from Thalapady on the Kerala-Karnataka border to Karode on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. Old timers would recall that this is the much-awaited National Highway Development Project, which had been hanging fire for the past several years owing to a host of issues, primarily having to do with land acquisition. The remaining 391 km, comprising two lots of 145 km and 273 km spread over eight corridors, is in North-South corridor and 391 km in West-East Corridor.

Completion by 2023

“The Bharatmala project is for five years and the corridors are scheduled for completion by 2023. The inclusion of the six corridors in the State, including the two major corridors and the bypasses under construction in the Bharatmala Pariyojana will result in speedy development of these stretches as the required sanctions from MoRTH and the NHAI headquarters will become swifter, Lt. Col. Ashish Dwivedi, Regional Officer, NHAI, Kerala, told The Hindu.

The State, he said, would also benefit from the decision to permit the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to grant sanction for projects with an outlay of ₹2,000 crore. User fee will be collected on the developed corridors and plazas will come up 60 km apart or less as prescribed in the National Highways Act depending on the availability of land. There would be time and cost savings if the time schedule can be observed in the implementation of the six corridors. This would also ensure that road users are not put to too many difficulties, the NHAI Regional Officer said.

The 27-km Kazhakuttam-Mukkola stretch of the NH 66 bypass, that extends up to Karode, figures in the Mumbai-Kanyakumari Economic Corridor. The 40-km NH 85 stretch from Theni to Munnar had made it to the Tuticorn-Kochi Economic Corridor. The 54-km NH 544 stretch from Walayar to Wadakkanchery and the 64-km NH 544 busy corridor from Thrissur to Edappally have been included in the North-South National Corridor. In the inter-corridor, the 14-km stretch of NH 966 from Palakkad to Mundur and the 51 km from Pallikuth to Kozhikode, and the 120-km NH 85 corridor from Munnar to Kochi have been included. The 48-km SH from Mundur to Pallikuth figures in inter-corridor route proposed in the Kozhikode- Malappuram- Palakkad stretch. The corridors are to be developed to at least four-lane access controlled (fully access control for economic corridors). With the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) setting December 2020 as the deadline for the four/six-laning of the National Highway 66 stretch from Talapady in Kasaragod to Kazhakuttam here, the government has chalked out a road map to complete land acquisition in the 600.12-km National Highway corridor by September. Land of 2,559.18 hectares is required for eight stretches. As land had been acquired at 30-m width over two decades ago, the government needs to acquire only the remaining 1,131.2 hectares for the 45-m right of way proposed by the NHAI under the National Highway Development Programme.

Land acquisition

Of the eight stretches, 98.54% land acquisition has been completed in the 28.4-km Kozhikode NH 66 Bypass from Vengalam to Ramanattukara. In the 63.35-km Kallikadavu-Thaliparambu NH 66 corridor, only 17.72% — 50.5 hectares of the 285 hectares — of land has been acquired. The land acquisition was reviewed at the Secretariat the other day by Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan and Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran with nine District Collectors, who are also the Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA) for the districts.

Alok Deepankar, Chief General Manager, NHAI, who was deputed by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, had attended the meeting with NHAI project officials. “Land acquisition in all stretches needs to be completed by September 2018 and the NHAI official has informed us that they are making arrangements for awarding the work,” Principal Secretary G. Kamalavardhana Rao told The Hindu.

The 3A notification under the NH Act of 1956 is before the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already been issued by the NHAI. This will be followed by the 3D notification under the NH Act of 1956 and survey works. “The blueprint is ready and the NHAI will invite tenders for the Cherthala-Kazhakuttam corridor in February so as to commence work by October,” Mr. Rao said.

The State is expecting a relaxation in the MoRTH norms that 80% of the land has to be acquired for commencing work. The Centre’s decision to allow the MoRTH to approve projects of up to ₹2,000 crore may come in handy for the State. Already, the Vengalam-Ramanattukara corridor, estimated to cost ₹1,288.56 crore, has got the nod from MoRTH. Mr. Rao said the NHAI had already finalised the concessionaire. Earlier, projects that cost above ₹1,000 crore needed the clearance of the Cabinet.

“The decision will immensely benefit the State as it will avoid delays,” he added. The hybrid annuity model (HAM) is expected to be adopted to execute the NH 66 widening work that is expected to cost ₹26,000 crore.