The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is swiftly implementing the work on widening the Nagapattinam - Thanjavur National Highway (NH 67) to a total length of 78.53 km.
The widening work, being executed via Tiruvarur and Needamangalam, aims at avoiding road accidents.
Road safety is the prime objective of widening the National Highway where a large number of accidents are being reported, mainly because of the frequent curves and inadequate space for manoeuvring vehicles, an official source told The Hindu over telephone on Wednesday.
The widening would enhance the breadth of the highway from the old 9 metres to 12 metres. The entire route accounts for 213 culverts, which will be re-designed and widened to suit the new alignment. It included 80 pipe culverts and 124 box culverts. A road overbridge across the level crossing in Koradacherry will also come up. As many as 14 bridges, including five major ones, would be built as part of widening the highway.
The project is being executed at an estimate of Rs. 578.39 crore.
The simultaneous maintenance of the old road has also been posing a challenge to the NHAI.
“Though it involves additional expenditure and effort, the NHAI has been executing patch up works wherever needed on the old stretch, again, as part of road safety measure,” the source added. The work is scheduled to be completed by December 2017.
