The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has recently written to its official here that preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Coimbatore – Sathyamangalam – Karnataka border road will be taken up by the NH wing of the State Highways Department.
The NHAI was preparing the DPR for a greenfield, four-lane road from Coimbatore to Karnataka border.
“The NHAI will hand over the DPR work to the NH wing. It can either follow the same alignment or revise the alignment, decide whether it will be a greenfield project or widening of the existing roads,” an official here said.
Chief Engineer S.C. Mandal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and N. Balamurugan, Chief Engineer of the NH wing, visited Coimbatore on July 31 and reviewed the proposed project and the Coimbatore ring road project too. Mr. Balamurugan also inspected the Trichy Road flyover, where there were four accidents since the inauguration of the flyover.
Official sources said since the greenfield project involved acquisition of land, the NH wing would look at possibilities to reduce land acquisition.
K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said, “We hope the Sathyamangalam road project will not be delayed as the NH wing will take over the project from the NHAI and continue the work that the NHAI was doing.” However, the State Highways (NH wing) should continue to focus on the project and ensure that the DPR was completed at the earliest and works were taken up without further delay.
