Decks have been cleared for the Highways Department to proceed with construction of the road over bridge (ROB) at the Aristo Junction in the city as senior officials of the department and the Railways managed to reach an agreement on land transfer at a meeting convened by P. Kumar, Member of Parliament, here on Tuesday.
Although nearly 80% of the first stage of the project has been completed by the Highways Department, the remaining portion could not be completed as stalemate prevailed in the talks between the two agencies over the land to be transferred by the Railways.
The project, taken up by the Railways and the Highways Department, is being executed in two stages and envisages building a multi-level bridge replacing the narrow road-over- bridge across the railway lines near the Tiruchi Junction on the Madurai Road intersection. In the first stage, a new three-lane road-over-bridge with five arms is being built at a cost of ₹ 44.28 crore adjacent to the existing bridge. In the next stage, the old bridge will be dismantled and a new bridge with two arms will be built in its place.
At Tuesday’s meeting convened by Mr. Kumar, the two agencies were said to have reached an agreement on the issue, paving way for the Highways Department to continue the work. “An agreement has been reached and the Highways department will begin the work on Wednesday,” Mr. Kumar said without giving details after the meeting.
P. Uday Kumar Reddy , Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi, C. N. Nagarajan, Divisional Engineer, Highways (Projects), Tiruchi, R. Poonkodi, Assistant Divisional Engineer, Highways (Projects), and senior Railway officials participated in the meeting.
According to sources in the Highways Department, the estimated Railway land required for the two stages of the project has now been revised to about 1,250 square metres. The Highways Department has agreed to build two via ducts including one to provide a pathway between the office of the Divisional Railway Manager and the Railway officers’ quarters on about 1,330 square metres of its land.
As per the agreement reached at Tuesday’s meeting, the Highways Department would begin work on Wednesday on completing the service road on the Railway portion towards the Dindigul Highway. Work on other parts of the Railway land at the project site would be taken up subsequently after obtaining concurrence from the Railway authorities, the sources said.
The first stage of the new flyover was scheduled to be completed by February 2017. But the project has suffered a time overrun due to issues in land transfer and acquisition. Approval for transfer for a small stretch of land of the Defence Ministry is also awaited. This apart, some private lands have also to be acquired near Aristo Hotel. The Highways Department is now hoping to complete the first stage of the project by the end of December.
