The Kundannoor bridge is ridden with potholes owing to shoddy upkeep.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
The 2-km-long Kundannoor bridge that links Kundannoor Junction on the national highway (NH) bypass with Willingdon Island is in a dilapidated state, despite frequent repair works.
Maintained by the NH wing of the Public Works department (PWD), the two-lane bridge provides connectivity for passenger/tourist vehicles from West Kochi, apart from container-laden and other lorries from the port.
There is also demand to develop the bottlenecked junction on its western side. The PWD banks on funds provided by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to repair the bridge and the road/bridge corridors on either side.
Travel through the Kundannoor bridge has been a nightmare for commuters during the past couple of decades, thanks to shoddy repair works done by the PWD (NH wing).
The gaping potholes and undulations that abound are considerably slowing down vehicles while also contributing to fatal and non-fatal accidents, said Antony Asanparambil, chairman, Maradu municipality.
“Two-wheeler riders are particularly at risk since they are often caught unawares by the potholes. Rather than do patch work over potholes, the PWD must scoop out the bitumen surface of the bridge and carry out resurfacing that can withstand frequent movement of goods carriers and other vehicles, a demand that the municipality and commuters have repeatedly taken up with the PWD. No other bridge in Kochi has seen such frequent repair works and is yet in this horrible condition,” he said.
Frequent travellers and tourists have also been demanding installation of lights with higher lumen on the bridge and also on Alexander Parambithara Bridge, a shorter bridge located on its western side. The road that leads beyond up to the Mattancherry BOT bridge is severely ill-lit.
‘Work will start soon’
A senior PWD official said the work to resurface the two bridges and the road that takes off from Kundannoor Junction and ends at the Mattancherry BOT bridge had been awarded in November.
“The work was held up owing to delay in getting sanction from MoRTH. With complaints pouring in from motorists and others, the work to carry out the full-width tarring of the two bridges and the road, totalling a six-km stretch, will begin shortly. This can be done in about a month, for which traffic will have to be regulated/diverted,” the official added.
The work to repair drains and slabs on the bridges has begun. The bellmouths of the junction immediately after Kundannoor bridge will be widened without acquiring land as part of the resurfacing work, he said.
In the meantime, the project of the National Highways Authority of India to construct a six-km-long, four-lane port-connectivity corridor (that will run largely parallel to the Kundannoor bridge) is yet to kick off. The project can gain momentum when the Cochin Port Authority hands over the requisite land, sources said.