Nine years after works started for the 1.6 km-long twin tube tunnel road at Kuthiran on the Palakkad-Thrissur stretch of NH 544, one of the tunnels was opened for traffic recently. The move will help improve connectivity between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.
The Kuthiran Tunnel is the first road tunnel in Kerala. It is a twin-tube tunnel, with three lanes in each tube, located at Kuthiran in Thrissur district of Kerala. One of the two tubes has been opened now. Kuthiran is a mountainous terrain on the Mannuthy-Wadakkanchery stretch of the Thrissur-Palakkad highway and is accident prone.
The tunnel is 1.6 km long and runs through the Peechi-Vazahani wildlife sanctuary. The objective of this road tunnel is to improve connectivity between important ports and towns while protecting wildlife.
