With the State government issuing an order on July 17 waiving royalty on raw materials and Goods and Services Tax (GST), which together total ₹424 crore, for the 44-km Kochi Bypass, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is expected to take a call on including the corridor in its list of upcoming projects, informed sources have said.
This will be followed by the long-awaited 3A notification to complete the acquisition of 287 hectares of land for the project that was mulled a decade ago to decongest the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 bypass and the Edappally-Angamaly NH-544 stretch. Each of the two corridors carries a whopping number of over one lakh passenger car units (PCUs) daily. The publishing of the notification is crucial to get the final clearance for the alignment that has been proposed. The pertinent aspects along the alignment include from where it would criss-cross the Sabari rail project near Angamaly, it is learnt.
The Palakkad project implementation unit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which maintains the Edappally-Angamaly NH 544 stretch, is expected to implement the six-lane greenfield corridor that will link Nettoor, located south of Kundannoor Junction on the Edappally-Aroor NH 66 Bypass, with Karayamparambu located off Angamaly on NH-544. Once realised, the semi-access-controlled corridor is expected to catalyse development in the eastern parts of Ernakulam district.
Apart from being included in the list of upcoming projects of MoRTH, aspects such as the detailed project report (DPR) and tender documents are likely to be fine-tuned, as per the revised construction norms. The entire process might take around a month. The Kochi Bypass project had earlier made it to the list of the Bharatmala Pariyojana projects. Its construction could begin from the next fiscal, if everything went well, said sources.
Work on Kollam-Sengottai greenfield NH 744 corridor, which too was caught in procedural and other wrangles associated with the waiver of royalty and GST for a year, is expected to commence around the same time.
Over a year ago, the State government had requested MoRTH to exempt it from sharing 25% of the land acquisition cost of the Kochi Bypass and the Kollam-Sengottai NH 744 stretch. In return, MoRTH had sought a Government Order waiving the two components. Concerned over the State’s delay in deciding the waiver, the NHAI had earlier this year ‘put on hold’ the projects.
