About 500 residents of SIHS Colony near Ondipudur – including a number of women – resorted to a road blockade at the check-post on the Tiruchi Road on Friday asking officials to expedite construction of the railway overbridge that connects their residential locality with the main road.
Residents said that the overbridge work that was progressing at a very slow pace was stopped about a year ago due to difficulty in acquiring the land required.
After repeated pleas submitted to authorities concerned at various levels, the residents and representatives of political parties resorted to a road blockade on Friday.
They alleged that the delay in construction work and closure of the railway gate on the alternative route affected people of the locality badly. Such inconveniences isolated the locality from the rest of the city, they said.
Police personnel removed about 300 protestors and took them to a marriage hall.
Officials from the highways, revenue and other departments held talks with the residents and assured to complete land acquisition or take over the land in two months and resume work.
This pacified the protestors. The residents said that they would strengthen protests if the assurance was not fulfilled.
