For the last one week, it is common to see men and machinery working on Avinashi Road and Mettupalayam Road, drilling bores to extract soil for testing.
Officials in the Highways Department say this is done to know the soil quality, to prepare detailed project reports for flyovers. The number of pillars needed and its strength will be determined based on the quality of the soil.
On Avinashi Road, a detailed project report for 8.2 km flyover from Uppilipalayam to Coimbatore airport will be prepared by next March. The Government had sanctioned ₹3.4 crore for the DPR and the actual contract value is ₹1.36 crore (including the cost for soil testing). The testing will be done at about 160 locations on Avinashi Road.
In the case of Mettupalayam Road, the proposals for flyovers are yet to be approved by the Government. The department is studying parameters such as soil quality, poles to be shifted, land to be acquired, etc. Soil testing was done at 10 locations on this road.
Industry representatives and consumer organisations say they welcome efforts for better infrastructure in the city. However, there are many projects that are pending in different stages, they point out. Projects such as Gandhipuram flyover and Ukkadam flyover have been modified from the original proposal to bring down land acquisition and costs. There are flyover projects that have received even financial sanction but have not taken off or remain incomplete, they say.
According to Vanitha Mohan, president of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, the city is bursting at the seams and needs to improve its infrastructure. However, the free expressway planned on Avinashi Road cannot be a standalone project. It has to be connected to Trichy Road, Mettupalayam Road and Palakkad Road.
“There has to be a master plan, a total plan, and this needs to be completed in phases,” she said. Further, these are requirements of the public and hence, the Government should form a citizen’s council and involve it. “It should not stop with the DPR. A master plan should be worked out and whatever proposed should be executed too,” she said.
K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said a free expressway on Avinashi Road was announced during the election campaign in 2016 and it is a requirement. However, when land acquisition goes up for a project, it gets delayed or the project is modified from the original proposal. Even nine years ago, the Government had taken a list of flyovers required in the city. For the Avinashi Road project, the department should plan and design the project in such a way that it has just three or four exit lanes at critical junctures and what is proposed should be implemented without changes.
