General drawing and alignment for constructing a new Railway Over-Bridge (ROB) on the National Highway at Valacode, Punalur, have been submitted to the Railways after successfully completing the joint inspection, N. K. Premachandran, MP has said.

Initially, the plan was to construct a road over a box-shaped structure previously built by the Railways near the existing Walacode bridge. However, scientific assessments later revealed that this box structure lacks the capacity to withstand the load of heavy vehicles, making the construction of an entirely new over-bridge absolutely essential.

The responsibility for the initially proposed road had been handed over to the State National Highway Division, with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) releasing ₹3.57 crore to the State government for this purpose. This amount was sanctioned to build a parallel road under a special scheme aimed at eliminating ‘black spots’ (accident-prone areas).

“Although the funds were transferred to the State department, the project hit a roadblock as the Railways denied permission citing safety concerns. Following this setback, the issue was once again brought back to the attention of the NHAI and and discussions were held with senior officials of both the Railways and the NHAI. These deliberations led to the decision to initiate steps for a new railway over-bridge featuring a 5.5-meter carriage way, replacing the original plan of a road over the weak box structure,” said the MP.

According to the final plan, a new over-bridge for vehicular traffic will be constructed on one side of the existing bridge, while a separate over-bridge for pedestrians will be built on the other side. This new over-bridge project is estimated to cost more than 20 times the budget of the originally planned road, and the NHAI has agreed to bear the cost of any required land acquisition. The construction will be executed directly by the NHAI.