Travelling through hell to touch the skies

KOCHI, AUG 3: The authorities did realise the need for an international airport here and had one built in Kochi promptly. However, they f...

KOCHI, AUG 3: The authorities did realise the need for an international airport here and had one built in Kochi promptly. However, they forgot that one also needed a motorable road to reach the airport. The traffic bottlenecks en route to Nedumbassery continue to make air travel via the International Airport a disenchanting experience. There is no end in sight to this problem.

A sizable chunk of air passengers are businessmen and executives from Kochi. When a passenger disentangles himself from the traffic knots in the city, a long sojourn at Marthandavarma bridge at Aluva awaits him. If he is lucky to get past that, the journey has more in store — the link road from Kariyad to the airport with a railway-cross in between.

Long queues of vehicles on the way to and from the airport are a perpetual sight on the two-and-a-half kilometre road. The wait at the level cross sometimes extends for the passage of two or three trains. Very often the gate is closed before the last vehicles in the queue get through,with the result that for them the agony of waiting continues for another 20 to 30 minutes.

There have been occasions where passengers got out of their vehicles and walked up to the airport to be in time for checking in.

“The situation is such that a passenger needs to start at least two hours in advance if he wants to be sure of getting into the plane,” says Thomas Joseph, a passenger. “A passenger returning home, needs to be in his car for a longer time than he has been in the airbus, to reach his residence in the city.”

The solutions are a new bridge across the Periyar at Aluva and a new road linking NH 47 with the airport. Of these, the bridge is not going to be a reality in the near future. There is much talk about its need, but no concrete proposal has yet come through. That means the long wait at the Marthandavarma Bridge is inevitable for a few more years more.

The new link to the airport beginning from Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy premises on NH 47 is under construction. The construction ofthe railway overbridge on the road and its approach roads is progressing; but it will take a minimum of one year to be ready for traffic.

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The portion above the rail track which consists of five spans and six pillars, is the responsibility of Railway contractors. The Railways sat on the proposal for nearly six months before giving administrative sanction and so construction commenced only two months ago. “We are going ahead with the construction despite the rains. We expect it to be complete in six months,” a representative of P J Baby and Company, Bangalore, which has taken up the work, said.