The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) must speed up the preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) for the elevated highway that the agency had mooted on the Edappally-Aroor bypass since the busy corridor would remain a major traffic bottleneck when the rest of the NH 66 corridor was widened to six-lane width, Hibi Eden, MP, told NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav on Wednesday.

The inordinate delay in finalising the DPR would in effect nullify efforts under way to widen the rest of NH 66. The Edappally-Aroor NH corridor is the busiest in Kerala and caters to one lakh passenger car units (PCUs) each day. It also has four congested junctions, including at Edappally where NH 66 intersects NH 544.

The impending influx of vehicles when the rest of the NH 66 was widened would further choke the Edappally-Aroor corridor. In this situation, the NHAI must finalise the DPR for the elevated highway in a time-bound manner, Mr. Eden said.

He further demanded that the NHAI take serious note of the memoranda submitted over the past few years by residents and others seeking to ready an adequate number of underpasses and other infrastructure for people to safely cross the Edappally-Moothakunnam NH 66 corridor.