Expressing solidarity with people of Kooriyur village, who were fighting against the construction of Railway sub-way under the unmanned level crossing road, leading to the village, Union Minister Pon. Radhakrishnan has offered to take up the issue with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
Mr. Radhakrishnan, who met the villagers, agitating under the leadership of BJP State vice president Suba. Nagarajan, a native of the village here on Tuesday, said the sub-way, causing inconvenience to the villagers has come up despite the fact he had discussed the matter with Mr. Prabhu thrice in Delhi with Mr. Nagarajan.
He would meet the Railway Minister again and insist that the Railways should build a Railway Over Bridge (ROB) or build the sub-way without causing inconvenience to the people of Kooriyur and other villages, to whom the road, passing through the unmanned level crossing was the only access to other parts of the district.
Though the Railway was building sub-ways with good intention to eliminate all unmanned level crossings and avert accidents, it could not ignore the apprehensions of the people of Kooriyur village, he said. The villagers apprehended that the sub-way would cripple their movement during rainy season.
The proposed retaining walls, abutting the sub-way would block free flow of water in the supply channels, flanking the tract and flood the entire village during rainy season, Mr. Nagarajan explained. Despite series of protests by the villagers, the contract company had laid the sub-way using precast concrete boxes on April 19.
The village was yet to be connected with the sub-way on the one side and with the Madurai-Rameswaram national highway on the other. Mr. Radhakrishnan was accompanied by BJP district president M. Muraleedharan and secretary Athma Karthik.
