Tiruchi Corporation and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have begun consultations to finalise the alignment and design of an elevated corridor at Panjapur in the city.
NHAI had earlier planned to build a grade separator as part of the semi-ring road that is to come up between Panjapur and Jeeyapuram. However, the Corporation now wants the structure to run for a longer distance in view of the infrastructure developments at Panjapur.
Tiruchi Corporation has been constructing an integrated bus terminus at Panjapur abutting Tiruchi - Madurai National Highway on a 50-acre land owned by the civic body at a cost of ₹349 crore. It was decided to finance the project by utilising ₹140 crore as a grant from the State government, ₹50 crore from the Corporation general fund, and ₹159 crore loan from Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDCO).
The Corporation expedited the work and committed to completing it before the end of this year. Apart from the bus terminus, various other projects such as a truck terminal, integrated vegetable market, multi-utility facilities centre, TIDEL park, and Olympic academy are expected to come at Panjapur.
Minister for Municipal Administration and Water Supply K.N. Nehru, who inspected the ongoing works recently, said Panjapur would be connected with Tiruchi - Karur National Highway through a road at a cost of ₹320 crore.
Considering such large-scale infrastructure projects and anticipating the future requirements to decongest the area, the Corporation had suggested that an elevated corridor be built for a stretch of 2.6 km starting from the banks of River Koraiyar to Senkurichi village, instead of the grade separator planned earlier by NHAI.
A Corporation official said the civic body carried out a joint study along with NHAI, to chalk out a plan for the design. Instead of building a single elevated corridor, suggestions were discussed on creating junctions in between the proposed corridor to facilitate the commuters. NHAI is expected to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) soon.
