Kuthiran Tunnel (

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

: കുതിരാന്‍ തുരങ്കം) is a twin-tube six-lane highway tunnel in the

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

n state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. The tunnel is located on the

National Highway 544 National Highway 544, commonly referred to as NH 544, (''old number'' NH 47) is a National Highway in South India connecting Salem city in Tamil Nadu to the city of Kochi in Kerala. It is also called the Salem-Kochi Highway. The highway runs ...

and it is owned and operated by the

National Highways Authority of India The National Highways Authority of India or NHAI (Hindi: भारतीय राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1995 (Act 1988) and i ...

. This is Kerala's first-ever tunnel for road transport and South India's longest six-lane road tunnel. Construction of the tunnel started in 2016 and completed by December 2021.

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra who is the current Minister for Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways cu ...

, the

Minister of Road Transport and Highways The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is a ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of India, that is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to road transpo ...

announced the opening of one of the twin tube tunnels through the social platform

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. The second tunnel opened in January 2022.

Present traffic

Kuthiran gradient is situated in the Kuthiran Hills, situated in the western part of

Anaimalai Hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala ( Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of we ...

. The hills are part of Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary. Kuthiran gradient was a major traffic bottleneck and an accident spot on the crowded

Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

stretch of the 6 lane

National Highway 544 (India) National Highway 544, commonly referred to as NH 544, (''old number'' NH 47) is a National Highway in South India connecting Salem city in Tamil Nadu to the city of Kochi in Kerala. It is also called the Salem-Kochi Highway. The highway runs ...

used by long distance traffic coming from Coimbatore, Salem, Chennai and Bengaluru. It was the missing link that was planned to be constructed when the Highway was designed. The works on tunnel took more than a decade to complete due to geological and administrative challenges. The project was awarded in 2009 but the work on the tunnel only began in 2016. On completion of works, both the tunnels reduced the distance between

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

to Coimbatore by but travel time got reduced by hours since there used to be traffic jams caused by heavy vehicles trying to traverse through the hills. In August 2018 during

2018 Kerala floods On 16 August 2018, severe floods affected the south Indian state Kerala, due to unusually high rainfall during the monsoon season. It was the worst flood in Kerala in nearly a century. Over 483 people died, and 15 are missing. About a millio ...

, the tunnel was opened for passage of emergency vehicles. In June 2019 the tunnel was opened for four hours following a

Gridlock Gridlock is a form of traffic congestion where "continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill". The term originates from a situation possible in a gr ...

caused due to an accident at Kuthiran Bridge. In October 2020, a Gridlock happened after an accident causing long queues extending to kilometers on both sides, and traffic resumed only in the evening after temporarily opening the under construction tunnel. On 31st December 2020, seven vehicles collided in an accident and 3 people died at Kuthiran causing a gridlock. These type of gridlocks used to happen regularly at this spot due to frequent accidents, and people who are aware of this used to prefer alternative longer routes just for the sake of a reliable journey time. An RTI query in 2019 revealed 235 people have died in this stretch due to accidents in the past 10 years. In January 2020, the tunnel was partially opened to facilitate Power Grid Corporation of India's underground cabling works between

and

. On July 31, 2021, one of the two tunnels in

direction was officially opened for traffic following an announcement made by

through

Cost

The Pragati group was subcontracted the work by the Hyderabad-based KMC company. Pragathi bagged the sub-contract at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

Dimension

The 6 lane twin tube tunnels will have length of almost 1 kilometer, left tube and right tube , while the width and height would be , respectively. The tunnels would be located in a gap of . There are two emergency crossovers inside the tunnel.

Gallery

Kuthiran Tunnel Timelapse PKD TCR.webm, Time Lapse video of Kuthiran Tunnel

References

{{Reflist Road tunnels in Kerala Transport in Thrissur district Proposed road infrastructure in India History of Kerala (1947–present)

Present traffic

Cost

Dimension

Gallery

See also

References