Residents living along the city stretch of the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway have expressed concern over the delay in acquiring land for laying service lanes along the highway even after the sanction of funds by the State government for the purpose.
The Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi-Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Roads, an umbrella organisation of residents’ associations formed to fight for the cause, has announced that it would stage a demonstration near the Kailash Nagar bus halt on January 31 protesting against the delay.
“We will intensify our agitation if the project is not executed expeditiously,” said S. Sakthivel and K. Viswanathan, organisers of the federation, addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
The Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway (NH-67) was widened into a four-lane way by the National Highways Authority of India a couple of years ago. The federation had conducted a series of agitations demanding the construction of the service lanes on the 14.5-km stretch since 2009-10 as the NHAI took up the project to four-lane the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway (NH-67). The road stretch runs along the highly industrialised part of the city and a large number of industrial units, commercial establishments, schools, and residential colonies were situated along the road.
The federation members said the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued a public notification, declaring its intention to acquire land for laying service lanes for a distance of nearly 15 km from Ariyamangalam to Thuvakudi. Subsequently, the 3(D) notification, a final declaration of the acquisition, under the National Highways Act was issued.
Meanwhile, the State government issued an order in August 2011 sanctioning Rs. 84.5 crore to be given towards compensation for the land to be acquired for the service lanes along the highway, the federation members said.
Although the money had been deposited in the account of the Special District Revenue Officer (Land Acquisition), National Highways, several months ago, and land acquisition was yet to begin, they alleged. The residents alleged that accidents had become frequent in the absence of service lanes. “Accidents take place every other day, often leading to fatalities,” they said emphasising the need for laying the service lanes at the earliest to check loss of life.
The residents said they had represented the matter to the District Collector and other officials.
