The State government has released funds for acquiring necessary lands for laying service lanes along the city stretch of the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway, much to the relief of thousands of residents who have been clamouring for the facility over the past few years in the city.
In recent months, residents living off the highway have been worried over the delay in the issue of final land acquisition notification for laying service lanes along the highway.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued a public notification under Section 3 (A) of the National Highways Act last year, declaring its intention to acquire land for laying service lanes for a distance of nearly 15 km from Ariyamangalam to Thuvakudi. The State government too issued an order in August 2011 sanctioning Rs.84.5 crore to be given towards compensation for the land to be acquired for the service lanes along the highway.
However, there was some delay in the actual release of funds. Residents had grown restive as the issue of the final notification under Sec.3 (D) (1) on the land acquisition had to be issued within a year of the 3 (A) notification. The Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi-Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Roads, an umbrella organisation of residents associations, formed to fight for the cause, has been lobbying hard for the early issue of notification. The federation had previously conducted a series of agitations demanding the construction of the service lanes on the 14.5-km stretch since 2009-10 as the NHAI took up the project to four-lane the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway (NH-67).
According to sources, the State government has recently released the funds paving the way for the issue of the final land acquisition notification. “The State government has released the fund recently and the final notification is likely to be issued soon,” P.Kumar, Member of Parliament, Tiruchi, told The Hindu on Sunday.
“We were very happy that the fund has been released and we expect the final notification to be issued soon. We understand that papers are also being processed by the NHAI,” said S.Sakthivel, one of the organisers of the federation.
