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NH 66 in Kerala: Status and updates on 6-Lane conversion

3rd December 2024, 12:08 by Ananth Iyer

As per last updates, the final deadline seems to be end of 2025 with some sections definitly spilling over to 2026.

BHPian Rajeevraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

National Highway 66 (NH 66)is one of India's busiest, most picturesque highways that run all along the West Coast starting near Mumbai and ending at Kanyakumari. It runs through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and has a small section in Tamilnadu also. In spite of being a critical highway, for the longest time, it has remained a 2 lane highway while the rest of the country was getting 4,6 lane highways and expressways at a rapid pace. Main reasons for this were the fact that this highway ran through densely populated and environmentally sensitive areas. Of course, administrative apathy always contributed to this.

There is already a thread that focuses on the Mumbai- Goa portion of of this highway and its updates. This post also gives an update on the the Goa-Mangalore stretch and the thread itself discusses the same. Purpose of this thread is to focus on and cover the status and updates of the NH 66 six laning work in Kerala.

Now, one might wonder what is there to discuss on a highway upgrade project which is happening all over the country. There are several aspects which make me personally excited about this and why I think it is a game changer in various ways.

Some Background:

People in Kerala and those who visit and drive here, know how densely populated the state is. While the road network kept getting enhanced and expanded across the country, Kerala has been(and still is) stuck with the same 2 lane roads for decades. Most efforts to expand typically would go no where due to various reasons starting with land acquisition challenges.
After long delays, the state finally saw the expansion of NH544 from the Kerala border at Walayar to Ernakulam to a 4 lane road which included the much talked about Kuthiran Tunnel also.
While the highway got upgraded, considering the NHAI approach when it was planned, it is in a situation where the Kerala section of this NH has a lot of signals and intersections.
NH 66 in Kerala meanwhile did not have that luxury also. Pretty much the whole section in Kerala passed through densely populated areas. There are fairly large towns every 10-15km. No one believed any expansion was possible.
Finally the State government, NHAI, MORTH Ministry worked closely together to arrive at a feasible plan and jointly execute. This also involved the state government agreeing to fund 25% of land acquisition costs. It was a good example of all stakeholders coming together and aligning.

Some facts and figures:

The Kerala stretch of NH 66 is around 600km from Thalapadi in the North (Kasargod) to Karode in the south (Trivandrum).
Driving any section of this has always been a nightmare due to the narrow roads, traffic density, towns at regular intervals.
An end to end drive of 600km can take anywhere between 14-17 hrs. Which means an average speed of ~35kmph.
You can mind map a 600km drive and how much time it takes on any 4/6 lane highway/expressway and that will help realize how slow this is.

Salient facts on the 6 Laning project

Divided into 24 reaches as shown in the image below. Each section is a separate contract.
Not sure of the exact dates, but all land acquisition was finally completed and mostly handed over to the contractors in the 2020 timeframe.
Some reaches, the work has been super fast others fairly slow.
The complete stretch will be a 6 lane + service road highway.
NHAI has learnt from the past and are making it pretty much a signal free highway. Every junction has an overpass or underpass. Every town is properly bypassed. Not the earlier approach where they make a 4 lane, then have to do a 6 lane and then add flyovers over a period of time at junctions where it was not done earlier.
NHAI has been flexible to make smaller design updates on the fly taking local inputs. As construction was happening, they approved several additional underpasses and overpasses.
Lot of realignments to avoid the winding, twisted roads. Overall distance also reduces due to this.
I liken it to the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway. While it is not an expressway in the true sense of the word and has plenty of entry-exits, due to no intersections or junctions, it is pretty much access controlled from any local cross traffic.
Cameras and speed monitoring are not after thoughts. Being done along with the construction.

The reaches breakup and distances. Distances seem to vary a little depending on the sources.

The contractors of the various reaches(Could not find a a more recent summary-All reaches are awarded. The snapshot shows 3-4 pending)

Why do I think it is game changing?(Note: I do agree that more than roads, the state and the country needs high speed mass transportation options, but having said that, this upgrade was needed and long overdue)

Today across state travel is a challenge for everyone. The fastest options are trains which are always full and there are never enough of them.
Even for tourism(Which Kerala lives on), most of the time visitors have to chose one part of the state because traveling just consumes too much energy and time.
The same applies for business and administrative and related work.
The expansion means going from a 2 lane highway straight up to a signal free 6 lane highway with service roads. I expect travel times to come down by a factor of 2-3 times. Taking an example: A drive from Kozhikode to Ernakulam (~170km) which takes ~6 hours today, can be done in 2.5 hours. An end to end drive should happen in 7-8 hours.
I have personally driven through many of the completed stretches from Kozhikode to Ernakulam. I feel it is being done well considering the constraints and challenges that have been faced.
As some of the videos below show, the whole route would become a super scenic drive.

Ok, so it all cannot be an example of perfection. Is there a catch?

The biggest potential concern is that this is a 6 lane in a 45 meter width. NHAI standard for 6 lane is 60 meter. Major compromise is for the medians which are concrete barriers(Concrete Jersey Barriers). This was one of the major sticking points as land acquisition for 60 meter was deemed infeasible.
Like we see in the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway, there is now separate entry exit lane due to the width restrictions, so entry and exit is from and into the left most lane.
Discipline on such a road will take time. The drivers and driving is not tuned to this. Expect a lot of poor driving practices and accidents in the initial phases.

What is the progress? Will it get done anytime soon?

Mostly good news here. Out of the 24 reaches, 6 are done. At least another 4-5 reaches are 80%+ done.
In North to Central Kerala. Work progress is very fast. Many portions are being opened as it is completed. Expectation is that the stretch from Kasargod to Ernakulam will get completed by 2025 end. Out of these many sections will continue to open all through 2025.
The South Kerala stretch is progressing more slowly. There is a deadline of 2026 for the whole section from NHAI. Need to see if this is met.
In summary, over the next 1-2 years, sections will keep opening and the journey will continue to get smoother.

More detailed updates on various reaches:

Note:

Most of the updates are based on the videos by the 2 vloggers below(Nishad and HaKZVibe) that I follow. While there are many video updates, I find these two folks have tirelessly and consistently provided updates. The embedded videos are mostly from HaKZVibe's channel
- https://youtube.com/@nishadpadhinhat...dCiQI455SRmDGK
- https://www.youtube.com/@hakzvibe1916
The videos are all in Malayalam, but have attempted to provide a background where relevant and the rest should be self explanatory in the video.
Caption Auto-Translate into English also works pretty well.
Does not cover every single stretch, but is more of an overall view with representative videos which give a good idea of the work happening and how the finished stretch will look like.

Starting from the North: Kasaragod District:

Fast moving reaches with 75% of work completed as per the updates.
The Kasaragod flyover spanning the Thalappadi-Chengala reach is the largest single pier bridge in South India as per the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpTSTVf1us8

Kannur-Kozhikode District- ~150km

Probably 50-60% of work done but progressing fast as per the updates. Several sections are open. The town bypasses are where most of the work needs to be done.
The famous Muzhapilangad drive in beach falls in this stretch. One of the videos below captures it.
Kannur Bypass will be a super scenic drive. First video below, need to go to Youtube directly to view it.
Completed Thalassery-Mahe bypass video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT-nQckMsU8&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKAwB4_-Cg0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1y1GvGlPqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqvmbLNcobU

Kozhikode Bypass

One among the top 3 cities in Kerala. A most critical bypass road which has already seen a lot of commercial build up.
80% of the work is done. Apart from 2-3 bridges and over/underpasses, is open for traffic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO13VEmXV9A&t=1s

Malappuram District

One of the fast progressing sections. 80% of the work is done.
Targeted to be completely done and open by March 2026 along with Kozhikode District work.
2 major viaduct based bridges in this stretch. Videos below. One of them has a 2+ km viaduct bridge said to be among very few in India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieO3rsCxrgw

This is the bypass of a town called Valanchery. One of the longest viaduct bridges in India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xysQLHsifYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RbvwrxtxYg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVJw6VIrYRo

BHPian Rajeevraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Thrissur-Ernakulam District

Progress has been fairly slow in the Thrissur-Ernakulam reaches for quite some time.
I had recently driven these sections and work seems to have finally picked up over the last 2-3 months. These sections definitely will open only in 2026 and may get delayed further.
This section was again a very high traffic zone with multiple large temple towns like Triprayar, Kodungallur- not to mention Guruvayoor which is 5 km of the NH 66 from a place called Chavakkad.
The existing road really narrows as it winds through some of these towns especially North Paravoor.
NH66 meets the NH544 at Edapally Junction in the outskirts of Kochi. This is an area where NHAI are still figuring out the best approach enable a signal free crossing for NH66.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVpA9fUsoeo&t=92s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qW8j2rPAJY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EXmNz8mrRU

Alappuzha District

Another area where work was slow but has picked up.
Highlight of this stretch is a 12 km elevated highway from Aroor to Thuravoor
As you can see, compared to North Kerala, the progress is much less and these sections also seem destined for 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5l6n5iGelE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0pybGJslI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0U2oajkAZM

Kollam-Trivandrum Districts

While work is progressing, once again not as advanced as the north and central portions.
Within Kollam districts the updates indicate that the work is progressing quickly and may be able to meet an end of 2025 or early 2026 target.
Sections in and around Trivandrum district and past the city to the TN border were all completed earlier itself. Here the roads are mostly 4 lane. As far as I have read, there are no plans to make it 6 lane at this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y_xfpkFBN8&t=7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JKy7y4sq78&t=2s

The end(or start) of NH66 in Kerala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LshjGrXKpbU

In summary, as mentioned in the beginning, this has been a massive undertaking. Several companies are working on different reaches. Some of them include KNRC, ULCC, Shivalaya, Adani. NHAI has extended the deadline a couple of times due to the heavy monsoons and general challenges with the terrain. As per last updates, the final deadline seems to be end of 2025 with some sections definitly spilling over to 2026. In another year, In my view this expansion will definitely unshackle road travel in Kerala. All those who enjoy a good drive- be ready for this. As the videos show, the scenery across most of this route will be beautiful.

Once again thanks to all the vloggers who tirelessly keep updating on a regular basis. Special shoutout again to HaKZvibe whose channel was the sources for most of the videos.

Will continue to update as progress is made and request others to do the same.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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