The much-pending Kochi bypass project gets the nod from the Centre

The project will enable inter-district and other vehicles to avoid the congested and accident-prone Aroor-Edappally NH 66 bypass, Edappally-Angamaly NH 544 stretch and more than a dozen narrow junctions on the route, saving considerable time and fuel. A scene from Edappalla. | Photo credit: File Photo

The long-delayed Kochi bypass project has got a new dimension, with the Center approving a 50-km-long, eight-lane wide greenfield corridor connecting Aroor on NH 66 to Angamaly on NH 544.

This would allow inter-district and other vehicles to avoid the congested and accident-prone Aroor-Edapally NH 66 bypass, Edapally-Angamaly NH 544 stretch and more than a dozen narrow junctions on the route, saving considerable time and fuel.

The Kochi bypass was proposed a decade ago as a 44 km long, six-lane wide corridor connecting Nettoor on the NH 66 bypass with Karayamparambu, located north of Angamaly. The project remained trapped in limbo after its 3A notification expired in 2024.

“A new notification 3A for the proposed eight-lane NH project will be issued shortly. The Center has allowed land acquisition of 70 meters width (compared to the earlier NH proposal of 45 meters width). This would enable an eight-lane section to be carved out, which could be further widened to ten lanes in the second phase of the project,” said Benny Behan when construction was delayed on the second phase of the project. the slow pace of land acquisition during the tenure of the LDF government.

This has further resulted in the traffic survey report done five years ago for the Kochi six-lane bypass project being out of date. This necessitated a fresh traffic survey that stated the need for an eight-lane corridor in view of the massive increase in inter-state, inter-district and intra-district vehicular traffic, added Mr. Behanan, who raised the demand for the project several times in the Lok Sabha.

NHAI sources said the proposed Kochi bypass would be eight lanes wide, but further details of the project are awaited.

The decision to extend the link from Nettoor to Aroor has in turn raised questions about the tube-shaped flyover NHAI was considering at Nettoor. A smaller version of the butterfly trefoil flyover, the tube flyover was to handle traffic flowing into Nettoor from NH Bypass, Kochi Bypass and Kochi Port NH connectivity.

Published – 21 Jun 2026 21:24 IST