Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Tiruchi, Mettupalayam roads stay neglected

V.S. Palaniappan

The Ministry of Road Transport, NHAI and National Highways yet to commit

CRYING FOR ATTENTION: A stretch of Tiruchi Road. - PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

Coimbatore: Even as the Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport, T.R. Baalu, is scheduled to lay the stone for the development works of the Karur - Coimbatore section of the National Highway-67 on Friday, there is no word yet on the re-laying of the battered stretch of Tiruchi Road (from bypass road to stock exchange) and Mettupalayam Road.

While the project for re-laying the Karur-Coimbatore busy stretch is welcome, the Highways authorities seem to have mixed up their priorities neglecting the two most battered stretches on the NH, which were proving to be the killer roads, observed the chairman of the Coimbatore Corporation's North Zone, P. Rajkumar.

Weak bridges

The Ministry of Road Transport, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways are yet to give a commitment on repairing these two stretches. The National Highways initially prepared an estimate for Rs. 8 crores for re-laying the 5-km stretch from Ondipudur to Stock Exchange on Tiruchi Road and it was subsequently revised.

Revised estimate

As per the revised estimate, the 7.2-km stretch from the Neelambur Bypass Road Junction to Stock Exchange was to be strengthened and widened at Rs. 9.9 crores.

The cost included reconstruction of nearly half-a-dozen minor weak bridges.

The road was handed over to NH in 1999 and is yet to be re-laid, point out residents along the Tiruchi Road, which has upcoming residential colonies. Even as the estimate was about to be sanctioned, the road had been handed over to the NHAI.

As the NHAI was focussing more on new projects it was yet to give a commitment on re-laying this stretch that runs through the city.

Even as the estimate for relaying this stretch is in the final stages of processing, the road had been taken over by NHAI, the secretary of the Coimbatore Consumer Cause, K. Kathirmathiyon, says.

Full of potholes

Similarly, the 158-km stretch from Coimbatore to Mudumalai (zero point border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), especially the 45-km stretch from Coimbatore till Mettupalayam, is full of potholes providing a backbreaking journey, motorists lament.

This inter-State road is a vital link between the textile city and Udhagamandalam. The Ministry has reportedly allocated Rs. 8 crs. for carrying out patch works and "the work should commence immediately," he says.

Residents agitate

Mr. Kathirmathiyon wants widening and strengthening of this stretch to begin at the earliest. Residents along this road have already been on the agitation path. Steps should be taken to construct a Rs 1.6 crore bridge across Sanganur Canal near 100 Ft Road Junction, on Coimbatore - Sathyamangalam Road.

Work originally scheduled for completion before March 2005 is getting inordinately delayed, he laments.

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