The Coimbatore Corporation took one step to move closer to finding a solution to the agonising wait for people at seven railway crossings in the city that have been identified as bottlenecks.
The Corporation Council approved recently a proposal to hand over more than 10 km of roads spread over seven locations to the Department of Highways to build six flyovers and an underpass.
The proposal placed in the Council called for facilitating an easy process for the Department of Highways to acquire land and also take up adjoining stretches under the control of the Corporation to form approach roads along the flyover.
The flyovers would come up at the following level crossings: Thanneerpandal Road, Tiruchi Road to Neelikonampalayam Road, Vilankurichi Road, Rathinapuri-Sanganur Road, Singanallur-Vellalore Road and Irugur Road. An underpass would be constructed at the railway crossing on Gandhiji Road (from Sanganur Canal to Kannappan Nagar),
The Corporation had received a letter from the Divisional Engineer of the Highways that suggested that the Corporation could either allocate funds and implement the flyovers project or hand over the required stretches of these roads to the Highways.
Accordingly, the Corporation discussed the letter and decided to hand over the roads to the Highways after getting the formal approval of the Council.
Ward 67 councillor Meena Loganathan thanked Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on the clearance for the construction of the underpass on Gandhiji Road.
The councillor said in a statement that she and the previous councillor of her ward, N. Loganathan, had been battling for this facility for the last 10 years.
RAAC plea
Welcoming the move of the Corporation, the Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore has called for three more such flyovers.
Association vice-president R.R. Balasundaram said these should be constructed at the Ganapathy-Avaramaplayam crossing, at the crossing near the Peelamedu railway station and near the Kikani School, off Brooke Bond Road. Another problem zone, especially during heavy rain was the underpass near Kikani School.
