Work on the development of 107-km Tiruchi-Karaikudi highway, including the laying of a bypass between Asoor on the Tiruchi-Thanjavur Highway and Mathur on the Tiruchi-Pudukottai highway, is expected to be completed in six months as the Madras High Court had recently given the go-ahead for the project.
The Madras High Court, in a recent order, upheld the petitions of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) quashing the Public Works Department’s orders stopping work on the project on grounds that the alignment of the road impacts water bodies. The stop-work notices initially stalled the Rs. 374-crore project. However, the NHAI had obtained an interim injunction early last year to continue with the project, which involves laying of new bypass in Tiruchi, Keeranur, Pudukottai, Thirumayam, and Karaikudi. The High Court has directed the NHAI to preserve the water bodies and carry out dredging or restoration, if required.
The PWD’s stop-work had mainly impeded the laying of the bypass from Asoor to Mathur. Although the NHAI went ahead with the project after obtaining an interim injunction, work on a couple of stretches along the bypass had remained suspended after farmers objected to laying the road across irrigation tanks near K. Sathanur.
According to sources in the NHAI, a major portion of the 26-km bypass has been completed. Already, about 15 km of the bypass had been laid and the work on the remaining portion will be completed soon. An overpass has to be built at Kumaramangalam. On the Tiruchi-Karaikudi section, work on nearly 75 km has been completed out of about 84 km. Being executed on the build-operate-transfer basis, the project would be completed in the next six months, the sources said.
Once completed, the bypass forming part of a semi ring road around the city would help quick and hassle-free transportation of material from the power sector major BHEL and ancillary units located around Thuvakudi.
