Work to broaden the sixth, seventh and eighth hairpin curves along the Thamarassery Ghat Road is set to commence shortly, The Hindureported .
The widening of National Highway 766 focuses on the most congestion-prone stretches of the route, which serves as the principal link between Kozhikode and the districts of Wayanad and onwards into Karnataka.
According to officials of the Public Works Department (National Highways), the project blueprint was finalised after soil testing and related surveys were carried out in patches of acquired forest land where trees had been cleared, and the design has since secured all required clearances.
The first phase will cover the sixth hairpin bend, with the seventh and eighth curves to follow in later stages. The contracting agency has already begun ferrying construction material to the sixth bend.
In January 2025, the State government issued administrative sanction for the widening exercise at an outlay of Rs 37.16 crore.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways approved the funds following a proposal moved by the PWD (NH).
Since these three narrow stretches account for the bulk of accidents and traffic snarls along the ghat, the upgrade is expected to noticeably smoothen vehicular movement.
The plan covers carriageway expansion, footpath construction and handrail installation. Post-completion, the road will broaden from 14.55 metres to 17.3 metres at the approach points and from 26.5 metres to 38.15 metres at the centre of the bends.
Over 400 trees were felled earlier as part of the project, and the timber was cleared from the site more than a month ago.
Separately, preparations are under way to fix high-tensile protective netting on the hillside close to the viewpoint above the ninth hairpin bend.
The location had suffered a landslip on August 26 last year, which sealed off the ghat for two days. With the monsoon approaching, Kozhikode District Collector Snehil Kumar Singh chaired a meeting in January where the netting plan was cleared.
Officials said a 30-metre-long and five-metre-high protective barrier would come up along the roadside at the foot of the landslide zone.
A gabion wall, formed by packing wire mesh cages with granite boulders, will be erected first.
Above it, stretching up to the hill crest, a galvanised iron netting system, modelled on the one deployed by the Konkan Railway, will be put in place.
The arrangement is designed to trap falling rocks and debris within the mesh, preventing them from tumbling onto the carriageway.
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