Alappuzha Bypass

A four-decade-old promise came to fruition on Thursday when the 6.8 km-long Alappuzha bypass on NH 66 in Kerala was thrown open to the public.nnThe two-lane bypass, which will allow commuters travelling from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram to skirt the town of Alappuzha on their journey, was jointly inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari through video-conferencing.nnGovernor Arif Mohammed Khan, Union MoS VK Singh and V Muraleedharan, state PWD minister G Sudhakaran, finance minister TM Thomas Isaac and Alappuzha MP AM Ariff were present at the function.nnThe foundation stone of the project was laid as early as 1980, but due to financial and land constraints, the construction got delayed indefinitely. Successive governments, both at the state and central level, through the 90s and 2000s took little interest in reviving the project even though it was highly significant for both people of Alappuzha town as well as those travelling from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram.nnConstruction finally took off in 2005 on the understanding that both the Centre and the state would allocate equal shares for funding the project. Though the deadline was fixed at September 2017, acquiring permission from the Railways for construction railway overbridges at Malikamukku and Kuthirapanthi as well as other reasons contributed to the project getting further delayed.nnThe 6.8 km-bypass connecting Kommady in the north to Kalarcode in the south and passing through the western side of NH 66 was built at a cost of Rs 348 crores. The state government spent an additional Rs 25 crores on installing streetlights and development of key junctions.