Kerala State Transport Project

The Kerala State Transport Project, costing 336 million US dollars (Rs 1612 crores) - of which World Bank financing is US $ 255 million (Rs 1224 crores) and State's contribution is US $ 79.00 million(Rs 388 crores), aims to improve traffic flow and road safety on Kerala State's primary road network, and to strengthen the institutional and financial capacity of Kerala's key transport sector agencies. The project has four main components: 

1. The transport corridor improvement component will support upgrading of state highways, including related social and environmental mitigation measures, and rehabilitating inland water transport feeder canals.
2. The road maintenance component will provide periodic maintenance of state highways and major district roads.
3. The road safety improvement component comprises consultant services for blackspot identification, programming and designing minor improvements works for State roads, minor mitigation measures and recommendations identified through this service will be implemented.
4. The institutional development and technical assistance (TA) component will provide services to implement the institutional strengthening action plan by appointing TA consultants in the areas of maintenance management and data collection, and developing a road management system.

Objectives

• Improve the capacity and quality of its highly congested state highways and major district roads;

• Improve road maintenance planning and management practices;

• Reduce road accidents and fatalities along project roads;

• Strengthen planning, technical and management capacities of key road sector institutions;

• Implement reforms in the road sector to bring greater private sector participation; and

• Pilot an inland water transport (IWT) project for testing approaches to correct the current imbalance in the nodal share between roadways and IWT in the State.

Components of the project

Construction components - Upgrading

• Phase I- Upgrading and widening of about 255 km of state highways and major district roads

• Phase I- Rehabilitation of about 100 km Inland Waterway (IWT) feeder canals

• Phase II- Upgrading and widening of about 324 km of state highways and major district roads. (later revised to 367km).

Construction components of Heavy maintenance

• RMC component- Periodic maintenance of about 1000 km of state highways and other priority roads awarded over a period of three years

• Improvements of accident blackspots

• Performance based maintenance and management (PBMM) contracts

Non construction components:

• Road Safety Action Plan

• Identification and improvement of accident black spots.

• Equipment and accessories for road safety improvement.

• Institutional Strengthening Action Plan (ISAP)

• Road Maintenance Management Plan

• IT/ GIS, Road condition survey

• Road user satisfaction survey, road safety awareness campaign

•  Training 

• Accident Management System (GeoKams), Project Financial Management System(PFMS), Pre-investment studies, State-wide Video-conferencing.

Roads Selected for upgradation (widening and strengthening) in Phase I 

Link No	Road Location	Length (km)
Package I
1	Taikod - Kottarakkara	46.022
2	Kottarakkara - Chengannur	44.430
3	Taikod - Kazhakuttam	12.600
4	Alappuzha - Changanassery	24.140
Total		127.192
Package III
5	Muvattupuzha- Thodupuzha	17.83
6	Muvattupuzha- Angamaly	31.40
Total		49.23
Package IV
7	Palakkad - Shornur	45.30
8	Thrissur - Kuttipuram	33.08
Total		78.38
Total Road Length under Phase I		254.802
IWT - Canals Selected for improving
1	Changanasserry - Alappuzha	28.00
2	Alappuzha - Kottayam	23.00
3	Kottayam - Vaikom	24.50
	Total	75.50

 Roads Selected for upgradation (widening and strengthening) in Phase II