Ball finally sets rolling for Pallikkare rail overbridge.

The uncertainty over the fate of the long-pending rail overbridge at Pallikkare, near Neeleswaram here, is finally coming to an end with the authorities floating the works tender for the project, a first on the National Highway No. 66 stretching from Mumbai to down South, as the four-lane bridge works is all set to be commissioned by mid-2019.

The longstanding aspirations to build the rail overbridge to ease the traffic snarls would be honoured with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) inviting the tender for the ₹52.67-crore project up to December 12, P. Karunakaran, MP, said.

The traffic blocks are attributed to the frequent closure of the busy double-line rail level-crossing.

The work would begin by April next, the MP said. The project envisages to build a six-lane rail overbridge, he said, adding that the work that is planned to begin by April is expected to be executed in a year.

The rail overbridge work had found its place in the ‘Sethubharatam’ project initiated by the Union Surface Transport Ministry at an estimated ₹40-crore outlay.

However, the proposed moves to turn the National Highway into a 45-metre four-lane road dragged the project into ‘technical hurdles’ with the NHAI insisting that the overbridge could be built only in tandem with the upgrading highway project.

Having faced criticism over the undue delay in launching the work, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP resorted to an indefinite day-and-night hunger strike at a venue near the level-crossing from September 18.

The stir was called off on September 20 following the talks Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had with senior NHAI and Public Works Department (PWD) officials in the State capital.

Meanwhile, authorities here have been urged to build an alternative road network, especially to help long-distance road users and to ease congestion till the proposed overbridge is commissioned by mid- 2019.

THE HINDU