A proposal to widen National Highway 47 to six lanes from Attingal to Vizhinjam near the city of Trivandrum, India.

1. Proposal to Six-Lane the NH-47
in Trivandrum
Presentation to Dr. Shashi Tharoor
MP of Trivandrum &
Union Minister of State for External Affairs
Trivandrum Development Front
www.tribiz.in

2. Contents
• Executive Summary
• Current Scenario
• Proposal
• Traffic Forecast Case Studies
– IT Corridor
– Vizhinjam Deep-sea Port
• Summary
• About TDF

3. Executive Summary
• The NH-47 is proposed to be four-laned under NHDP Phase III
and the tender process is nearly complete
• Two stretches – Trivandrum to Oachira and Trivandrum to TN
Border – are in Trivandrum district and pass through the Urban
Agglomeration of Trivandrum city
• Due to significant incremental and non-incremental growth in
traffic, there is a clear case to six-lane the stretch of NH-47 from
Attingal to Vizhinjam at the earliest
• The growth is due to the spread of the urban agglomeration of
Trivandrum as well as major developmental projects like
Technopark expansion, Technocity and the Vizhinjam deep-sea
port
• Changes could be made in the current contracts to six-lane the
concerned stretch

4. Current Scenario
• The National Highway 47 (Kanyakumari – Salem) is the busiest
road in Kerala connecting the two main cities of Trivandrum and
Cochin
• The stretch from the Tamilnadu border to Cherthalai is being
upgraded to 4-lanes from the current 2 lanes in 3 packages:
– TN border to Trivandrum (43 Kms)
– Trivandrum to Oachira (85.57 Kms)
– Oachira to Cherthala (83.6 Kms)
• All packages are currently due to be awarded after completion of
tender process in August 2009
• The NHAI DPR mentions that all stretches need to be urgently
taken up for 4-laning as the threshold traffic volumes have
already been exceeded as of 2004
• However, the traffic forecasts in the DPR are incremental in
nature and do not take into account several major developments
which could have significant impact on traffic

5. Basic Proposal
• The stretch of NH-47 between Attingal town and the proposed
site of the deep-sea port at Vizhinjam passes through the urban
agglomeration (U/A) of Trivandrum city
• The NH-47 between Attingal and Vizhinjam is fast developing
into an arterial North-South road for the Trivandrum U/A with a
population of almost 2 million people
• The stretch is already seeing traffic volumes in excess of 30,000
PCUs/day which is comparable to stretches taken up for 6-laning
in NHDP Phase V
• The Trivandrum IT Corridor is aligned along the NH-47 from
Thonnakkal to Chackai
• Major developments like the International Airport, Vizhinjam
deep-sea port, Technocity as well as the industrial belt of
Trivandrum are aligned along this road
• The Kovalam – Poovar tourism zone located on the stretch
attracts 150,000 foreign and 10 million domestic tourists in 2008

6. Basic Proposal
• The Ministry of Roads has included the Attingal – Trivandrum –
TN Border stretch in the proposed National Expressway Network
and the stretch has been accorded top priority; it is planned to be
developed by 2012
• NHAI has also called for a feasibility study for an Outer Ring
Road for Trivandrum under NHDP Phase VII
– This ORR will possibly begin and terminate on or close to
the Attingal - Vizhinjam stretch of the NH-47
– The ORR will encompass most of the proposed
Trivandrum U/A and direct significant traffic on to the NH-
47 as it will act as the coastal link of the ORR
• The National Games of India are due to be held in Trivandrum in
Jan 2011. The Main Stadium is located on the stretch
• Put together, this creates a strong need to six-lane the road from
Attingal to Vizhinjam as part of the current project

7. Proposed Stretch
Life Sciences Park
Technocity
Kazhakkoottam Junction
Technopark Phase I
Industrial Area Technopark Phases II & III
ISRO Space Center
Railway Terminal
International Airport
Kovalam Tourist Zone
Vizhinjam Deep-sea Port

8. IT Corridor
• The IT Corridor has about 4 million sq.ft of completed space and
28,000 employees at present; 3 million sq.ft in development
• By 2018, there will be about 25 million sq.ft and 200,000 people
working along the IT Corridor between Thonnakkal Junction and
Chackai Junction on the NH-47 (Slides 8 & 9)
• 5 major hotel projects, 4 mall projects and over 10,000 units of
apartments under construction along this stretch
• Considering about 50% usage of public transport (buses), the IT
parks alone can create a traffic volume of about 30,000
PCUs/day/direction
• As IT/ITES operations are shift based, 80% of the traffic could be
in the peak times of 7-9 AM and 5-7 PM
• An excellent case in point is the congestion experienced on NH-7
to Electronics City in Bangalore where about 100,000 people are
employed
• We could see peak traffic of over 12,000 PCUs/hour due to the IT
Corridor development by 2018-20 and about 6000 PCUs/hr by
2015

9. Railway Line
Courtesy: The Hindu

10. Forecast for IT space till 2018
25
IT Space (Mn Sq.ft)
20
Demand for Space
15
10
5
0
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
Time
Sources: NASSCOM, Mckinsey, AT Kearney, PwC and Technopark studies

11. Vizhinjam
• The upcoming port at Vizhinjam will be the deepest in the Indian
Ocean region with drafts of over 18 meters
• It is planned as a container transshipment hub to serve the whole
of peninsular India
• Traffic estimates are 3 million TEUs by 2018 and up to 6 million
TEUs by 2020-22 (According to Lanco Infratech estimates; 2008)
• It is likely that major port-related industries and non-container
based activities will develop in and around the port area
• About 10% of total container volume may be non-transshipment,
which means about 300,000 TEUs in 2018 and 600,000 TEUs in
2022
• This could create traffic volumes of 3700 PCUs/day and 8000
PCUs/day along the proposed stretch by 2018 and 2022.

12. Traffic Growth Summary
2010 2015 2020 Remarks
Current Traffic estimate 40,000 58,000 85,000 As per NHAI DPR; 2004
(PCUs/Day)
Estimate of IT Corridor 5000 30000 60000 Slide 7,8,9
Traffic (PCUs/Day)
Peak Traffic (PCUs/Hr) 1500 6000 12000
Estimate of port related 0 2000 8000 Slide 10
traffic (PCUs/Day)
Total Additional Traffic Some of additional
(PCUs/Day) N/A 25,000 30,000 traffic may already be in
current estimate
Total Peak Traffic N/A 6000 6000
(PCUs/Hr)
Total Traffic (PCUs/Day) N/A > 70,000 > 110,000
Peak Traffic (PCUs/Hr) ~ 5000 10,000 16,000 Peak due to IT

13. Summary
• The estimates used in the 2004 DPR will not include traffic
growth due to non-incremental reasons such as the development
of mega-projects such as the IT Corridor or Vizhinjam
• As per NHAI DPR of 2004 for TN Border – Trivandrum package,
peak traffic volume was 3200 PCUs/hr
• Peak traffic figures of 10,000 PCUs/hr are achieved by 2015 and
over 15,000 PCUs/hr by 2020
• As per previous studies by organisations like IIT Bombay and
guidelines such as IRC 106-1990, six lane roads are needed for
peak traffic volumes of 900-1200 PCUs/lane/hr and above
(5400-7200 PCUs/hr)
• The threshold level of traffic for six-laning could already have
been reached at present and will certainly be exceeded by 2015
• There is an immediate need to six-lane the stretch from Attingal
to Vizhinjam
• A suitable Change-of-Scope can be issued to the successful
contractor; 45 m ROW is already available

14. About TDF
• The Trivandrum Development Front is a registered not-for-profit
organisation which promotes developmental initiatives and projects
in and around the city of Trivandrum, India
• Our aim is to achieve betterment of the community through
development of the regional economy
• TDF has been working with the Government, its agencies, the
business community of Trivandrum and major domestic and
international investors to promote projects worth over US$ 4 Billion
over the last 5 years
• TDF has team of professionals working on a pro bono basis, with a
cummulative experience of over 50 man-years in the infrastructure,
property development, IT/ITES and consulting fields
To know more about Trivandrum and TDF, visit www.tribiz.in