Member of Parliament from Dharmapuri D.N.V. Senthil Kumar pulled up an NHAI official for the poor state of road between Harur and Salem, and called for the details on the road work, over the weekend.
The stretch between Ayodhiyapattinam and A.Pallipatty, spanning a length of 35 km, is riddled with potholes causing a high rate of fatalities. However, the road that would cut down the travel time to Salem was left to ruin for long.
Dr. Kumar, who inspected the road in the presence of NHAI operations engineer, took to task both the official and the contractor for the state of the road.
The first-time DMK MP told The Hindu that he was on a thanksgiving tour through Harur, and realised how the travel between Harur and Salem that should be 45 minutes took two hours. “Even while I was there, a man fell off from his bike because of a pothole.”
“The general perception was that the road was deliberately left in that state so that people would be forced to ask for the eight-lane Expressway from Salem-Chennai. Lot of people had been messaging me on social media flagging the road and I decided to look into it,” said Dr. Senthil Kumar. The MP was also seen measuring a pothole.
While people were clueless about whose control the road came under, the operations engineer who was asked to be present during the MP’s inspection had said that the road was taken over from the State Highways by the NHAI in February and the contract was awarded to a Tirunelveli-based contractor.
However, neither the contractor, nor his representative was present to respond to the MP. Later, the NHAI official put him over phone with Dr. Kumar.
The contractor, who is still setting up his plant before starting the works, had assured Dr. Kumar that the road works would be started on October 2 and completed in 15 months.
