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Speed Limit 80 Km on Wider Karamana NH Stretch

  • The widened busy stretch of the National Highway passing through the Capital City to the south would allow vehicles to cruise at a maximum permitted 65-80 km/hr.Announcing this, official sources said here that the National Highways wing of the State Public Works Department (PWD) would soon come out with a new alignment for taking up the widening work.The reference is to the long-pending work on the 29.2-km-long stretch of National Highway 47 from Karamana to Kaliyikkavilai, among the busiest corridors leading up to the inter-State border with Tamil Nadu.A decision on expediting the new alignment was taken after the Minister for Public Works, Mr V. K. Ebrahim Kunju, and the Minister for Transport, Mr V. S. Sivakumar, met with people's representatives here on Wednesday and deliberated on the matter.

  • According to the sources, two other factors of immediate relevance in terms of setting the pace of the work are:

  • (i) exercising the option of use of available land to the extent possible, and (ii) acquiring any additional land in equal measure from either side of the corridor.

  • An official Government spokesman said here that the Chief Engineer, National Highway, Mr Joseph Mathew, made a brief presentation on the likely alignment.

  • An earlier alignment had failed to find favour with people's representatives.Bus bays, all 16 of them, will be constructed into the 30.2-m carriageway. Government land available would be used for the purpose. Earlier proposals had sought to build them outside of the carriageway. Among those attended the meeting are Mr A. Sampath, MP; Mr N. Sakthan, Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly; Mr A. T. George and Ms Jameela Prakasam, MLAs; Mr Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Public Works; and Mr T. Baburaj, Chief Engineer.

  • The alignment for widening the road into six lanes with a 30.2-metre carriageway at an estimated cost of Rs 690 crore was prepared almost two years ago.Initially, the survey was carried out for a 45-metre road. But opposition from local residents to acquisition of land forced authorities to go for a second survey and a revised alignment limiting the width to 30.2 metres.

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