Road Project Update

TIRUCHI: Four-laning work on the Tiruchi-Dindigul National Highway (NH 45) has gathered momentum.

The 88 km highway stretch is being made four-lane under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) Scheme with Reliance Energy Limited being the project concessionaire. The work commenced in January this year and is scheduled to be completed by June 2010. Though the land acquisition process is yet to be fully completed, the project concessionaire has commenced work on stretches where land is available for widening the highway in Tiruchi and Dindigul districts.

According to sources in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the III D notification for land notification, the final one, is expected to be issued shortly. Land acquisition has to be completed in about 25 villages in Tiruchi district and in about 10 villages in Dindigul district. The process had been completed in a few villages in Dindigul districts, where the work has gathered pace.

By-pass road

New grade separators would come up as part of the project at Aiyyalur and Vaiyampatti. A by-pass road, between Panchapur and Ramji Nagar, would link Tiruchi City with the highway. The by-pass road would effectively make for a half-ring road formation connecting the Tiruchi-Dindigul, Tiruchi-Madurai and Tiruchi-Chennai Highways.

With the commencement of work on the Tiruchi-Dindigul section, four-lane projects were underway in all major highways, except the Tiruchi-Pudukottai Highway.

Sources indicated that the four-lane project on the Tiruchi-Pudukottai-Karaikudi National Highway (NH 210), also sanctioned under the National Highways Development Programme Phase III A, was in the tender stage and the work was expected to commence soon.