Highways Minister E.V. Velu and Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam inaugurated road works under the Chief Minister’s Road Development Programme here on Sunday.
Roads connecting district headquarters will be widened into four lanes under this project. In Dharmapuri district, two roads are to be widened at ₹410 crore - the 33.20 km Dharmapuri- Harur (via Morappur Road) and 15.20 km of Tiruvannamalai-Harur Road.
At the function, Mr. Velu said Dharmapuri district had 222.66 km of State Highway roads, 36 bridges, 152 small bridges and 3,688 culverts maintained by the Department. When the two road projects were completed, people would be able to reach Tiruvannamalai from Dharmapuri in an hour instead of 1.45 hours taken now.
“This year, 255 km of roads will be laid at ₹2,500 crore in 38 revenue districts under the CM’s programme. The Chief Minister wants every road connecting districts widened into four lane as in the U.S.,” he added.
Mr. Velu said the Chief Minister instructed that the contracts for laying roads under this programme should be given to qualified and experienced contractors. Only those road contractors who laid roads in stipulated periods would get further contracts.
For road safety, the Chief Minister conducted a review meeting and announced the Nammai Kakkum 48 scheme, which gave free emergency treatment to road accident victims for 48 hours. Through this, in the last four months, more than 600 people’s lives were saved at a cost of ₹55 crore,“ the Minister said.
Collector K. Shanthi and officials from the government departments took part.
