For those travelling from Salem, Erode or Tirupur to Coimbatore, the NH 47 that they take now has a new board that says it is NH 544.
The concessionaire who took up the project to make it a six-lane road (excluding the service roads on either side) has completed the works on the stretch from Chengapalli to Neelambur and the new board indicating the directions to various cities mentions it as NH 544.
The notification related to change in numbers of NH roads came in 2011 and the NHAI is in the process of the putting up the new numbers on all the stretches, says an official here.
Apart from the change in numbers, some stretches have been fragmented and new routes added in some others.
The new numbers of the NH roads passing through Coimbatore district are: NH 47 is now NH 544, NH 67 is NH 181 and NH 209 is NH 83.
In Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, the Srinagar - Kanyakumari road is NH 44 (passes through Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri), Krishnagiri-Dindivanam -Tiruvannamalai road is NH 75, Chennai-Krishnagiri road is NH 48 and Kuppam - Krishangiri road is NH 42.
In Salem District, the Thoppur – Mallur - Namakkal (Bengaluru – Madurai) road which is NH 7 now has been re-numbered as NH 44 and Asian Highway 43 and the Salem - Ulundurpet Road which was earlier NH 68 has been re-numbered as 79.
( With inputs from P.V. Srividya and S.P. Saravanan )
