Clearing a major hurdle in the realisation of the Alappuzha bypass project, installation of girders as part of the construction of a rail overbridge (ROB) at Kuthirapanthy has been completed, Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran has said.
In a press note here on Tuesday, Mr. Sudhakaran said the work had been completed in four days.
Likely by September
“Now concreting and tarring works need to be taken up. If weather permits, all pending works will be completed in a time-bound manner and the bypass could be opened for traffic in September,” the Minister said.
The fixing of the girders signals that the more-than-four-decade-long wait for the bypass is set to end soon.
Although mooted in the 1970s, the bypass work remained a non-starter. The work finally got under way on April 10, 2015. The project set to be completed in September 2017 got delayed further on account of various reasons.
Delays
The Alappuzha bypass project consists of two ROBs at Malikamukku and Kuthirapanthy. One-and-a-half-years ago the work on the project came to a halt following the delay in getting permission from Railways to place girders over the railway track. After inspecting the girders brought for the construction of the ROBs, Railways had recommended structural changes and denied permission for starting the work. Following this, necessary changes were made to the girders. The installation of girders at Malikamukku was completed in January. The 6.8-km two-lane bypass road, passing through the western side of NH 66, will link Kommady in the north to Kalarcode in the south.
