The long wait seems to have come to an end for motorists using New Natham Road as National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has begun re-laying the road that had been dug up to construct the city’s first elevated highway.
After carrying out groundwork for the last two weeks, the work of laying of dense bituminous macadam (DBM), the course layer, has begun on those stretches of road between IOC junction at Tallakulam to Oomachikulam where the launching of concrete girders have been completed.
The girders have been launched in 78 out of 188 spans under the project to construct elevated highway for 7.3-km. “We have completed girder launching in around 45% of the total stretch and have planned to lay the road for around 3.2 km in the first phase,” a senior official from NHAI said.
NHAI had originally planned to lay the road to make it smooth and motorable on the stretch between IOC junction and near Athikulam junction to facilitate procession of Lord Kallalazhagar during Chithirai festival in summer of 2020. However, COVID-19 brought the work to a standstill and normal celebrations of Chithirai festival were also cancelled.
The dug up road and the loose top soil were putting road users to lot of inconvenience though the stretch of road between IOC junction and Bharathi Ula Road has remained closed ever since the work began in November 2019. “We have planned to complete the road laying work along with the pedestrian pathway with railings by December,” the official added.
While the project was originally planned to be completed by November 2020, following the disruption due to lockdown, the officials have now planned to complete good portion of the project by May 2021.
The final layer of road would be laid later. The elevated corridor is part of four-laning of Madurai-Natham highway to provide a shorter four-laned road route to Tiruchi.
