Visakhapatnam: The consultant appointed by the Vuda to construct a 4-lane flyover at the busy NAD junction has prepared two concept plans/designs. The final plan will be finalised within 2 months and the tenders are expected to be called in the next 6 months. Vuda had invited tenders to appoint a consultant to prepare Detailed Project Report (DPR), for the proposed flyover in December last year. Subsequently, a Chennai-based consultant, VAX Consultants Pvt. Ltd, had been picked and the DPR has been readied.
Flyover at NAD junction has been a long pending demand by the daily commuters as it leads to many important areas, including the road to the airport. Based on the site conditions and constraints enumerated, the Chennai-based consultant worked out two alternatives. As per the first alternative, the National Highway (NH) traffic is taken through a 60 mt box-tunnel at the junction. Thus, the NH traffic is taken to the first-level. Airport side approach to the tunnel merges with the existing approach of the Road Over Bridge (ROB). Marripalem-Simhachalam Road traffic will be elevated.
The required length of level portion is provided on Simhachalam arm of the flyover so as to avoid congested stretch at grade. Metro Rail Corridor is planned along the National Highway at the second-level. In the second alternative, city-side approach of the existing RoB shall be dismantled. Two three-lane bridges are constructed along NH. Elevated and elongated round-about is constructed for channelising the traffic flow into Marripalem - Simhacha-lam Road. The required length of level portion is provided on Simhachalam arm of the flyover so as to avoid congested stretch at grade. Metro Rail corridor is planned along the NH at second-level.
As per the preliminary estimates, the first alternative costs around Rs 120 cr and the second one costs Rs 200 cr. The consultant opined that first alternative is cost-effective and simple to execute. Traffic volume count shall be taken up and lane configuration shall be arrived based on the traffic data. "There is also a flyover coming up in that area that was sanctioned under union shipping ministry’s Sagar Mala project. We are yet to study that. If the Sagar Mala flyover decongests the traffic to a certain extent, then the designs and plans of NAD flyover can be changed accordingly and we need not spend much budget also on it. Vuda is the executing agency of the flyover," said district collector Dr N. Yuvaraj.
