The works on the construction of retaining walls at 17 points on the Yercaud ghat roads are progressing at a fast pace and is expected to be completed before the commencement of annual summer festival on the hill station.
The works have been taken up by the State Highways Department at an outlay of Rs. five crores under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Rural Roads project.
Salem district, including the hill station of Yercaud experienced heavy rain continuously for a few days in mid-November 2015, leading to major landslips damaging the Salem – Yercaud ghat road at various points. Due to the poor condition of roads vehicular traffic to Yercaud from Salem remained suspended for a few days. The State Highways Department temporarily filled the parts of the ghat road that gave in with sand bags, which led to the restoration of traffic.
Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Chief Minister, who was then State Highways Minister, inspected the damaged ghat road and sanctioned ₹5 crore under the Nabard Rural Roads scheme for constructing retaining walls at all the damaged locations to ensure safe vehicle movement on both directions.
The retaining walls construction works which commenced about three months ago are progressing at a fast pace at present. According to the State Highways Department sources, the retaining walls are constructed using reinforced cement concrete technology at 15 points on the Salem – Yercaud ghat road section and another two points on the Kuppanur ghat road and Kottachedu ghat road.
Two major works are in progress near the Muniappan Temple on the main ghat road. As they are major works, the department is taking utmost care to ensure the quality of work, a senior officer told ‘The Hindu’ here on Thursday.
The State Highways is taking all effective steps to ensure that all the road development works on the ghat road are completed as per schedule before the annual summer festival on the hill station scheduled in the month of May.
Yercaud town and the surrounding villages used to receive huge volume of vehicles from across Tamil Nadu and also from the neighbouring states for the summer festival and the flower show and the department is striving hard to complete all the ongoing works by then to ensure safe passage for the visitors, the senior officer said.
The district administration has ordered the closure of the road for heavy vehicle traffic, except the buses, on this ghat road from February 8 to March 31 to facilitate the retaining wall construction works. As the works were still progressing, the district administration recently extended the ban on plying of heavy vehicles other than buses on the ghat road for the whole of April.
