In a major relief to road users, Tangedco has started shifting electric poles that were located on the middle of New Jail Road, opposite Madurai Central Prison.
A Tangedco official said there were two rows of 10 electric poles each. “Currently, the row of electric poles that was located in the centre have been shifted to the corner of the road on the pavement. The remaining row of electric poles will be removed and the cables will go underground,” he said. The work began after Madurai Corporation recently paid the Tangedco for shifting the electric poles.
It is a long-time demand of vehicle users to shift the electric poles from the middle of the road, as the earlier placement created confusion among vehicle users. “Since New Jail Road being an arterial stretch, there is vehicle movement throughout the day and night. But the odd location of electric poles caused confusion among the road users and caused accidents. The situation was worse at night when people unfamiliar with the road fail to take notice of the electric poles ,” said a police personnel.
A Corporation official said a few years back the road was widened. As a result the poles that were on the margin of the road came to the middle.
However, around 30 trees were chopped -some of them were partially cut - for shifting the row of electric poles, complained S. Sridhar of Mannin Marangal Pathukappu Iyakkam. “The officials could have just cut a few branches which were hindering the shifting of electric poles. But they chopped the huge trees, with total disregard to the natural ecosystem” he said.
The members of the organisation had pasted notices on the chopped trees to criticise the move. “Felling of trees will compound the problem of dust pollution in the city, at a time when several development projects are under way,” he added.
The Tangedco official said the trees were needed to be cut off to shift the electric poles.
