CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday gave the Central and State governments two weeks to respond to a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought orders to upgrade the 65-km Kallakurichi-Tiruvannamalai State Highway to a National Highway.
The project was proposed six years ago. Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar issued the notice.
The petitioner, NS Subramaniyan of Kallakurichi, said as Tiruvannamalai is a pilgrimage centre, the number of vehicles passing through the stretch keeps rising. The stretch has 60-speed breakers and 150 curves; it takes two and a half hours to reach the temple town from Kallakurichi.
Pilgrims and traders use the stretch to commute to Tirupati and Bengaluru, he said. If the State Highway is upgraded into an NH, the travel time would get reduced to 45 minutes and it would reduce traffic, fuel consumption, air pollution, vehicle-operating cost, and accidents, Subramaniyan stated.
Alleging that the Centre had not taken steps to provide funds, he sought the court to issue orders to the Centre and the State to initiate the project immediately.