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Govt to seek AG’s opinion on NH 67 service road work

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Even as four months have lapsed since a breakthrough was achieved in deciding the width of the long-pending service road on a stretch of National Highways 67 connecting Trichy and Thanjavur, uncertainty looms over the primary works of the road. Though there is no legal hurdle in initiating land acquisition, the final order on a case filed by traders against the project is being awaited. After much delay, the government is set to seek the advocate-general’s opinion of for initiating the land acquisition.


Even though the Trichy-Thanjavur stretch of National Highways 67 was completed during 2012, the service road for a 14.5 km stretch from Palpannai to Thuvakudi was not taken up. After repeated demands, the state government in 2013 suggested to NHAI to lay the service road on the missed-out stretch with 60-metre width. Subsequently, a sum of Rs 84.50 crores was deposited by the state government for land acquisition.
The NHAI was prepared to lay the service road for 60 metres after the land acquisition. However, the state government took a u-turn by revising the proposed width to 45 metres owing to protests from traders who established commercial complexes along the stretch. But NHAI maintained that a service road with less than 60 metres width was not viable. “The deadlock was finally addressed in February 2018 as NHAI agreed to lay the service road for 45 metres.

However, the government is hesitant even now in initiating the preliminary works to fulfil our demand for reasons best known to it,” S Sakthivel, Federation for Retrieval of Trichy-Palpannai-Thuvakkudi Service Road, told TOI.

The traders on the stretch had in November 2014 approached the Madurai bench of Madras high court and obtained a stay on the project. The bench vacated the stay in an interim order in June 2016. With no legal hurdle for the government in initiating land acquisition, the public blame the government for being dormant and indirectly serving the interests of traders on the stretch. “On raising the issue in the state assembly on Thursday, I was given an evasive answer by the government. Interim order says that there is no restriction on initiating the land acquisition, but the state government is unmoved,” Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Thiruverumbur MLA said.

Official sources in NHAI Thanjavur project implementation unit (PIU) said that civil works would commence only if the government completed the land acquisition. Speaking on behalf of the government, AIADMK MP, P Kumar said, “While we await the final judgment in the case filed by traders against the service road project, an opinion from advocate-general Vijay Narayan will be taken to initiate the preliminary land acquisition works.”

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