The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is expected to resume construction work on the bypass road connecting Tiruchi-Madurai and Tiruchi-Karur national highways in another four to five months after acquiring land for the revised alignment.
The by-pass will form part of a semi-ring road connecting almost all major national highways around the city. The project ran aground after farmers raised objections to the road being laid across irrigation tanks.
Expectations over resumption of work has been mounting after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest cleared the decks by negating the need for fresh environmental clearance for the revised alignment.
The project was originally taken up as part of the widening of NH 67 executed on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis by NHAI. It ran into controversy over alignment and land acquisition issues in 2006-07. Farmers complained that the road, if built across the tanks, would affect irrigation and their livelihood.
The bypass road, which will run from Panchapur on NH45 via Thayanur to Thindukarai near Jeeyapuram on NH 67, was halted midway in 2010 after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, while hearing a petition from farmers’ organisations, struck down the NHAI plan to build the road across Kothamangalam, Kallikudi and Punganur irrigation tanks in Tiruchi district.
The court ordered that the bypass road be laid without affecting irrigation sources. Subsequently, a public hearing was held and a revised alignment was finalised.
NHAI sources told The Hindu that work on the project would begin after about 43 hectares of land were acquired on a stretch of about five km under the new alignment. The process was expected to be completed in another four to five months. Tenders would be called once the notification for the land acquisition process was initiated.
The sources indicated that it could take about 18 to 24 months (from the date of commencement of work) to complete the road as a few major structures, including two road over bridges and a flyover, had to be built as part of the project.
Meanwhile, Collector S. Sivarasu, while speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said work on construction of a bypass stretch on the other section, between Mathur on Tiruchi-Karaikudi NH and Panchapur on Tiruchi-Madurai NH, was likely to resume by next month and would be completed in six to eight months. The section had also remained incomplete for long.
