Alappuzha residents anxious over Kalarcode Junction retaining wall
Alappuzha residents fear a retaining wall will divide Kalarcode Junction. Although officials promised a flyover extension, no written orders exist, raising concerns about severe traffic gridlock and restricted access.
Alappuzha residents fear a retaining wall will divide Kalarcode Junction. Although officials promised a flyover extension, no written orders exist, raising concerns about severe traffic gridlock and restricted access.
Alappuzha residents fear a retaining wall will divide Kalarcode Junction. Although officials promised a flyover extension, no written orders exist, raising concerns about severe traffic gridlock and restricted access.
Alappuzha: Lingering anxiety has gripped local residents over whether Kalarcode Junction, the critical southern gateway into Alappuzha town, will be entirely cut off by a solid retaining wall. While the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Santosh Kumar Yadav, had assured MP K C Venugopal that an additional pier would be constructed to extend the elevated corridor by 30 metres at the bypass junction, no formal order has been issued to implement the decision.
Local NHAI officials maintain that the decision has not been officially ratified and they have received no written directives. This administrative silence has deepened fears among residents that this vital hub will effectively be cleaved in two.
Kalarcode Junction serves as the primary lifeline connecting incoming traffic to both Alappuzha town and the old highway. Vehicles traveling from the Thiruvananthapuram direction diverge here to access either the bypass or the town center. Under the current arrangement, however, there is only a single underpass, and it was built in front of SD College rather than at the bustling Kalarcode Junction where it was actually needed.
The existing blueprint features a 210-metre elevated corridor flanking this underpass: 120 metres resting on five piers to the south, and 90 metres supported by four piers to the north. Commuters and local residents maintain that this is grossly inadequate and are pressing for a substantially longer elevated flyover.
Public protests had already erupted months ago when workers began building a Reinforced Earth (RE) block wall in the very stretch where locals had expected an elevated flyover. Contractors claim that ongoing work is confined to sections that will not interfere even if the elevated corridor is modified. However, residents argue that even the promised 30-metre extension will do little to truly resolve the bottleneck.
Erecting a solid concrete barrier dividing Kalarcode Junction into eastern and western halves poses serious logistical problems. The junction is flanked by vital civic institutions, including Sagara Hospital, a nursing school, the CAPE Engineering College, Ambedkar Model Residential School, as well as multiple churches and temples.
Even now, negotiating this intersection is an ordeal. Residents warn that sealing it off with an RE block wall will trigger massive gridlock near the private mall, while forcing heavy vehicles to travel much further north just to make cumbersome, risky U-turns.