Panchayat sits on go-ahead to repair road

A three-kilometre stretch connecting the Indian oil corporation limited (IOCL) terminal at Vaazhavandhankottai with the Trichy-Thanjavur national highway has been causing severe inconvenience to transportation of highly inflammable fuel from the terminal to several districts across the state. Although IOCL has expressed its willingness to bear the cost for relaying the road, the village panchayat has been silent on the request.
It is a bumpy ride for the 250 tanker lorries that make trips to the IOCL terminal on the worn-out road. Half of the stretch belongs to Vaazhavandhankottai panchayat while the remaining is owned by the small industries development corporation (SIDCO) industrial estate.
The IOCL smart terminal here handles motor spirit or petrol, high speed diesel, PDS kerosene and ethanol blend petrol which is supplied from Chennai through an underground pipeline.
The fuel is transported daily on trucks to 18 destinations. The tanker lorries carry anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 kilo-litres of fuel and have damaged the road considerably owing to regular wear and tear and heavy load. Despite repeated complaints from lorry drivers, the situation has remained the same.

Recently, SIDCO decided to lay the stretch up to 1.5 km for which IOCL sponsored Rs 71 lakh. It was said that the work for laying the road would commence shortly.
But the village panchayat has been silent on relaying the remaining stretch. It may be pointed out that Vaazhavandhankottai panchayat has been collecting Rs 20 per lorry to use the road, for many years.
With a view to repair that stretches too, IOCL decided to sponsor for relaying the road. To their surprise, there was no reply from the village panchayat.
When contacted, former councillor of Thiruverumbur union V Palaniappan said that the road laid between 2011 and 2016 was damaged. " If IOCL has such a proposal, I can take it to the notice of the block development officer (BDO) who only can decide on it, as the term of the elected representatives of the local bodies has expired already," Palaniappan told TOI