MADURAI: Soon, motorists travelling between Vadipatti and Natham need not enter Madurai city as the Vadipatti-Thamaraipatti four-lane road work is nearing completion and may be inaugurated in November. NHAI-Madurai launched work on the four-lane road on the Madurai -Tiruchy NH on March 16, 2020.
According to an official in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the 29.96-km stretch is being built at a cost of Rs 854 crore and is part of the Madurai ring road section on NH-744A. Nearly 85% of the work is over and the project is expected to be completed by November 2025. Once the road is inaugurated, motorists can bypass Madurai city, and can cover the 30km distance from Vadipatti to Thamaraipatti in just 30 minutes. At present, they have to spend one hour, bogged down by the slow moving traffic in the city.
The road connects Vadipatti NH44 to Thamaraipatti NH38. It has three sections—from Vadipatti to Sundarrajanpatti near Alagarkoil, Sundarrajanpatti to Mandhikulam on Natham road , and Mandhikulam to Thamaripatti. There will be three flyovers in the stretch—in Sundarrajapuram, Mandhikulam and Thamaraipatti.
A NHAI official said “Work on the animal overpass near Vadipatti has been completed. We are yet to complete the chain-link fencing on both sides of the road, which is 210 metres long and falls under Wavuthamalai reserve forest. The remaining area comes under the revenue department,” he said.