Kuthiran tunnels to open May end

Thrissur: With the drilling works of one of the twin tunnels, constructed  by Pragathi Engineering constructions for the National Highway Authority at Kuthiran Climb, being completed on Monday, the officials of the company said that both the tunnels would be ready for traffic by the end of May. The company took nearly eight months for completion of this tunnel which is called the Left Tube Tunnel. It is the biggest road tunnel in south India and is nearly one kilometre long. The work of the other tunnel called Right Tube Tunnel will be completed by March.

The company started drilling the Left tunnel from both the sides of the Kuthiran Mountain and joined them at the middle of the mountain. “From one side, we drilled nearly 600 metres and from the other side, the tunnel mining works were done for 360 metres. Our surveyors did an excellent job by joining the tunnels from both the sides without even one centimetre difference in the alignment,”  Krishnam Raju, director of Mumbai-based Prakrithi Engineering told DC. The twin tube tunnels are being constructed on the six-lane toll highway between Mannuthy in Thrissur and Vadakkencherry in Palakkad.

According to the officials of the company, which is doing the road works on the six- lane road, the works are expected to be completed before the monsoon. This tunnel at Kuthiran is the first of its kind in the state and will help save a two kilometre distance as compared to the highway road presently laid around the mountain at Kuthiran climb which has several inclines. “For this Rs 110 crore twin tunnel project, at all the drilled portions, steel frames called ‘ribs’ have been placed in an arch shape for support and concrete is sprayed on the periphery of the rock  with 5 cm thickness so that it does not come in touch with the atmosphere and develop cracks,” Mr Raju said.