State highways department acquires land for Periyar Nagar ROB

TRICHY: The state highways department has acquired land for a stretch of about 100metres for laying approach roads and creating road junctions as part of the Periyar Nagar road overbridge (ROB) project in Thiruvanaikovil in Trichy.

On Tuesday, the department removed around 20 buildings including some houses and many shops with the deployment of a large posse of police personnel to avoid any untoward incident due to the acquisition.

The department had in November 2017 informed the residents on the stretch to vacate in order to acquire land for the ROB project. However, they sought some more time. An official said that recently they requested time till Ayudha pooja and later Diwali but failed to vacate.

The objective of removing the buildings in the area was to take possession of the land to lay approach road towards Gandhi Road Junction connecting Chennai Road.

Highways department officials said the land acquisition done on Tuesday was not enough to lay the approach road. An officer said that shifting of electric poles on the stretch should be completed at the earliest so that work for the approach road can begin.

It may be recalled that the construction work was necessitated following traffic congestion on the two-lane ROB in Thiruvanaikovil. Keeping in view the traffic snarls, the state government gave in-principal approval for establishing four-lane ROB at Periyar Nagar in February 2011. The work commenced only in mid 2016.

Source