The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to make the semi ring road, connecting four major national highways around the city with an elevated corridor near the upcoming integrated bus stand at Panjapur in Tiruchi, a four-lane highway and draw up a fresh detailed project report (DPR) for the same.
The floating of the tender, a couple of days ago, inviting bids from consultancy agencies for preparation of the DPR brings to an end years of uncertainty over the fate of the bypass between Panjapur on Tiruchi-Madurai National Highway and Thindukarai on Tiruchi-Karur National Highway.
The NHAI had been examining the feasibility of making the bypass a four-lane road although a DPR for a two-lane highway with paved shoulders had been drawn up. It had kept on hold the proposed three-km elevated corridor at Panjapur.
With the State government building an integrated bus terminus, a truck terminal and an integrated vegetable market at Panjapur, the NHAI had taken a fresh look at the project and has now decided to make the entire semi ring road and the elevated corridor a four-lane highway.
Work on the bypass section between Panjapur and Thindukarai was initiated 15 years ago as part of the widening of the Tiruchi-Karur section by the NHAI but was stopped in 2010 after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court struck down the plan to build the road across Kothamangalam, Kallikudi, and Punganur irrigation tanks in Tiruchi district. The court ordered that the road be laid without affecting irrigation sources.
Subsequently, a new alignment was finalised and the land acquisition was almost over. Once completed, the road would become a part of a semi ring road running from Thuvakudi to Thindukarai via Mathur and Panjapur connecting the Tiruchi-Thanjavur, Tiruchi-Karaikudi, Tiruchi-Madurai, Tiruchi-Dindigul, and Tiruchi-Karur national highways. The bypass section between Thuvakudi and Panjapur was completed recently.
The NHAI has now decided to widen the Thuvakudi and Panjapur section to a four-lane highway, which is a two-lane road with paved shoulders. According to NHAI sources, a combined DPR would be prepared for this and the nearly 20-km Panjapur-Thindukarai section, besides the elevated corridor and a fly over near Thindukarai.
The entire section would be a controlled-access highway for high-speed vehicular traffic, with regulated ingress and egress, NHAI sources said. Consultants are to submit their bids by September 5.
