Highways Department to resume work soon

The Highways Department is set to resume construction on the bridge coming up along the Cauvery banks at Odathurai as the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court vacated its interim order on a case that had stalled the completion of the bridge.

Work has been halted on the construction of the new bridge, though in advanced stage, following the litigation. Apart from the pending court case, the Railways had to complete the construction of the portion of the bridge on their land. The Railways recently completed work on their portion of land and the Highways Department had taken steps to resume work on connecting the railway portion with the main bridge structure.

Sources in the Highways Department said that work on erecting the final two piers and construction of decks above would be taken up over the next few days now that the case had been dismissed.

“We work will resume at the earliest and the entire project would be completed within a couple of months. We expect the bridge to be ready for being thrown open for traffic by New Year,” an official said.

The bridge, which will connect the Chinthamani area of the city with the Tiruchi-Chennai bypass, was sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 28.50 crore. The project took off in March 2010 but faced several impediments and has overshot its scheduled completion date in March 2012.

Once the bridge is thrown open, work on the construction of the new bridge at Periyarnagar is expected to be taken up in full swing. Only after the Odathurai bridge is opened, the Periyarnagar bridge work can be taken up as it will entail traffic diversion.