The Highways Department has resumed widening a portion of Thanjavur Road between Ariyamangalam and Irattai Vaical. Though the work was taken up at an estimate of about ₹ 2 crore, under the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme (CRIDP), it was suspended due to a variety of reasons, including a few legal tangles.
The work has been resumed. The road caters to a huge volume of traffic, especially lorries and vans transporting vegetables and commodities to and from the Gandhi Market. Sources said that the road was being widened on both sides thereby making it wider by about 1.8 to two metres depending on the space available. It would provide more manoeuvring space for motorists. The sources added the remaining portion of the road up to Gandhi Market and beyond till Palakkarai would be taken up for widening in the coming years under the CRIDP. It would entail removal of encroachments.
The department has been evicting encroachments in the city periodically.
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The department has forwarded a separate proposal to the government to develop all roads within the corporation limits at an estimate of about ₹ 150 crore. Apart from Thanjavur Road, various roads including city stretches of Dindigul Road and Karur Road, Goodshed Road and others are under the maintenance of the department.
If the project comes through, city roads for more than 40 km would be developed.