Vellanad-Chettachal road work to begin next month.

Work on the Rs. 40-crore 22-km Vellanad-Aryanad-Chettachal road linking the four panchayats of the Aruvikkara assembly constituency will commence next month.

The corridor is the first of the five roads to be taken up under the Rs. 270-crore two ‘rehabilitation’ packages of 106.2-km of State Highways (SH) and major district roads (MDR) being taken up under the State Road Improvement Project (SRIP).

The road, that is expected to alter the face of Aruvikkara, will have a carriageway of six metre. Footpaths, streetlights and drains will be the highlight of the developed road that has five major junctions and 27 small junctions.

Granular sub-base and wet mix macadam will be used to strengthen the areas that are being widened in the 22-km stretch, being developed under the rehabilitation package B. Junction improvement will be taken up in major junctions depending on availability of land.

Signboards, road markings using thermoplastic paint, and crash barriers had been included, said K.S. Sabarinathan, MLA.

The construction work would be taken up by INKEL Ltd. and EKK Company consortium. The road is to be completed in the allotted two years.

Four State Highways and a Main District Road corridor in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Kannur, and Kasaragod figure in the project to be executed through the design, build, finance, operate, and transfer (DBFOT) in PPP Hybrid annuity mode with 20 per cent upfront payment.

No land acquisition is needed for rehabilitation packages by Road Infrastructure Company Kerala Ltd. (RICK) set under PWD. Road users need not have to pay toll on these roads.

The company is responsible for the designing, engineering, financing, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of the project. The concession period is 15 years. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will launch the works on the road next month.

THE HINDU