Commuters in the bottlenecked Aluva-Perumbavoor Road have cause to cheer as the State government has granted revised administrative sanction to widen the narrow and congested road into a largely four-lane road.
The project has been included in the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) list of projects, and a sum of ₹263 crore has been earmarked for land acquisition, sources said.
Under the first phase of the project, the Aluva Pump Junction-Palakkat Thazham Junction corridor will be widened to 18.50 metres, while the Pump Junction-Aluva metro station corridor will be widened to 13.60 metres. The Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) has approved the alignment to widen the road, which was readied in accordance with the specifications of the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), they added.
Boundary stones
The KRFB’s Ernakulam-Thrissur division has been tasked with executing the work, and the work to lay boundary stones will begin soon. A total of 7.505 hectares is needed for the project to widen the road, for which a land acquisition officer has been appointed, it is learnt.
“Commuters and pedestrians from Perumbavoor have to jostle for space with KSRTC buses and other heavy vehicles in the narrow but busy corridor,” said Sherin Wilson, who hails from Perumbavoor and is a senior consultant, strategic communications and public relations, Centre for Public Policy Research. “For them, the road provides connectivity to the Aluva metro station. For the past several years, they have wasted much time caught in slow-moving traffic and snarls in the corridor,” she added.
“This is further aggravated by haphazard parking by vehicles and lack of footpaths. A family member of mine who commutes to Kochi city by bus for work is often forced to rely on online taxi cabs due to the worsening traffic congestion in the corridor,” she said.
Sources said that residents and commuters from the region had also been eagerly waiting for the long-pending Perumbavoor bypass.
Published – May 09, 2025 07:20 pm IST