NHAI Builds NH 66 Pillars Before Access Design Exists

Construction Moves Ahead of Access Design

Pillar foundations are being poured at Muthakunnam on NH 66 before the National Highways Authority of India has issued the drawing that fixes where vehicles will enter and leave the highway.

The sequence is inverted. Physical construction has moved ahead of access design.

To open the pillar bases, the tarred approach road carrying southbound traffic off the old Kottappuram bridge was dismantled in full. Main carriageway movement has stopped.

Vehicles now use the completed service roads flanking the bridge. The junction where Maliyankara road meets that service road runs congested through the day.

Assurances Without a Drawing

NHAI Project Director P. Pradeep inspected the site after a local action committee pressed the case and the Chief Minister's office directed a review.

Officials gave a verbal assurance that an entry and an exit would be provided at Muthakunnam.

A verbal assurance carries no contractual weight. The drawing does.

Action Council convener Shajith Manohar's delegation took the demand to Ernakulam District Collector G. Priyanka, who relayed it to NHAI during the meeting.

The drawing is being prepared. Its contents remain withheld.

Bridge Bottleneck Holds Northbound Traffic

The harder item is the Muthakunnam-V.P. Thuruth major bridge, halted nine months after pillar subsidence. Northbound traffic cannot use the new crossing until that structure is finished.

Foundation settlement in the Kottappuram backwater alluvium is a geotechnical problem. It is the single item on this corridor that no administrative assurance can shorten.

Risk and the Signal

Risk sits in three places, unevenly:

- NHAI owns the design exposure and the political heat.
- The elevated-package contractor is absorbing idle deployment now and variation claims later, once ramp geometry is finally frozen and the interface redone.
- Paravur residents hold the congestion.

Signal: on NH 66 through Kerala, access geometry is being settled after earthworks start. Freeze the ramp layout before the approach road comes up, or delivery dates get set by a drawing nobody has seen.