Army to help restore road access across Kollidam

Following a request from the State government, a team of Army engineers from Bengaluru on Tuesday inspected the regulator across Kollidam at Mukkombu.

Sources said Army engineers were satisfied with the progress in the work done by PWD in plugging the breach and that they would primarily advise the district administration in providing connectivity to people in villages situated on both sides of the river as the bridge on regulator used to serve as a road link.

“Since the collapse of Upper Anaicut a fortnight ago, people in villages situated on Namakkal road and Karur road could not reach either side. They have to travel to Tiruchy to reach the other side. Many college students used to cross the bridge on a daily basis. In order to provide them with transportation facility, the Army engineers may be suggesting ways like construction of steel bridge or other temporary structures,” sources added.

It has been two weeks since the structure across Kollidam collapsed and PWD officials are grappling to arrest the water flow. Work on building a sand-bag bund is on round the clock and PWD officials hope the work will be completed by Wednesday night and water flow arrested. The Butterfly Park in Melur near Srirangam is still closed for public as PWD has taken over the road enroute to the park for transporting boulders.

A steady stream of trucks and earth movers have been transporting mammoth sized boulders used to reinforce the bund. Mounds of boulders  have been lined up till the department have filled rock piles the tenth pier of the regulator. With this, the restoration works are nearing completion and there are just three more vents left to be shut with boulders. Sources in PWD said Army engineers hailed the restoration works. Once the breach is plugged, farmers relying on Cauvery would be assured of copious water flow for irrigation.

Ministers Vellamandi N Natarajan and S Valarmathi during their visit to Mukkombu on Tuesday said the works to plug the breach would be completed within Wednesday night. CPI(M) state secretary K Balakrishnan who visited Mukkombu on Tuesday charged the State government with failing to manage water resources, adding several old regulators are still left unattended by the government.

Source