Tiruchi-Karaikudi bypass project on fast track
Work on the development of 107-km Tiruchi-Karaikudi
highway, including the laying of a bypass between Asoor on the
Tiruchi-Thanjavur Highway and Mathur on the Tiruchi-Pudukottai highway,
is expected to be completed in six months as the Madras High Court had
recently given the go-ahead for the project.
The
Madras High Court, in a recent order, upheld the petitions of the
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) quashing the Public Works
Department’s orders stopping work on the project on grounds that the
alignment of the road impacts water bodies. The stop-work notices
initially stalled the Rs. 374-crore project. However, the NHAI had
obtained an interim injunction early last year to continue with the
project, which involves laying of new bypass in Tiruchi, Keeranur,
Pudukottai, Thirumayam, and Karaikudi. The High Court has directed the
NHAI to preserve the water bodies and carry out dredging or restoration,
if required.
The PWD’s stop-work had mainly impeded
the laying of the bypass from Asoor to Mathur. Although the NHAI went
ahead with the project after obtaining an interim injunction, work on a
couple of stretches along the bypass had remained suspended after
farmers objected to laying the road across irrigation tanks near K.
Sathanur.
According to sources in the NHAI, a major
portion of the 26-km bypass has been completed. Already, about 15 km of
the bypass had been laid and the work on the remaining portion will be
completed soon. An overpass has to be built at Kumaramangalam. On the
Tiruchi-Karaikudi section, work on nearly 75 km has been completed out
of about 84 km. Being executed on the build-operate-transfer basis, the
project would be completed in the next six months, the sources said.
Once completed, the bypass forming part of a semi ring road around the
city would help quick and hassle-free transportation of material from
the power sector major BHEL and ancillary units located around
Thuvakudi.
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