Residents seek speed breakers on the stretch linking Gundur with IT Park

While the State Highways department has commenced re-laying the four-lane road stretch linking Gundur along Tiruchi-Pudukkottai national highway with the IT Park of ELCOT at Navalpattu, residents of Police Colony and Anna Nagar who use the nearly five-km stretch have specified the necessity for erection of speed-breakers at vulnerable spots.

Accidents are being reported periodically along the stretch due to lack of speed-control by motorists, the residents point out.

More often, motorists are not to be blamed since they are taken unawares by inebriated customers of a couple of TASMAC bars along the road, Kamaraj, a resident of Police Colony said.

According to Navalpattu police, uneven surface at some spots that jolt the motorists along the otherwise smooth road is also a cause for accidents.

The residents say that the Highways department that has planned to complete the road rectification by this month-end must also take cognisance of the presence of educational institutions and take measures to prevent accidents. Erecting speed-breakers may pose problems for motorists in the absence of illumination during night hours, a senior official of Highways department said, adding that a study will be carried out to arrive at the prevention measures. According to the locals, operation of city bus services along the road will bring down the movement of two-wheelers substantially. The four-lane road was constructed with an overall width of 14 metres, as a vital link to provide proximity to the Tiruchi International Airport so as to attract front-ranking companies to the Navalpattu IT Park.

Owing to the road link, the ELCOT has been able to expand built-up space in the IT Park that has been witnessing a spurt in patronage.

Safe travel along the road, particularly during night hours, has become a daily concern of the several hundreds of employees of the IT companies, the locals point out.