Tiruchy: Two major road development projects expected to be completed by Mar 2021
TIRUCHY: Come this April 2021, Tiruchities may heave a sigh of relief as the state highway department is set to complete two major road development projects- Tiruchy-Karur Highway and Manachanallur-Thuraiyur bypass road by March 2021.
Two long-pending projects- Tiruchy-Karur Highway and Manachanallur-Thuraiyur bypass road may soon be thrown open for the public usage by the district administration, as the highway department is undertaking construction in a brisk manner.
According to the highway department, the road extension work of the Tiruchy-Karur Highway has crossed the 55 percent mark. more than 70 per cent work has been completed in the Thuraiyur bypass road. District Collector S Sivarasu conducted an inspection and check the progress of both the road projects.
District Collector S Sivarasu said, " Despite starting only a few months ago, the construction work in both these projects are going in a brisk manner. The highway department is expecting to complete these projects before March 31, once completed, the projects will be thrown open for public usage."
Incidentally, construction work for both the projects began in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown although the project was proposed several years ago.
A senior highway official said, " The two projects are in different stages. In the Thuraiyur bypass road, only a few minor construction work and layering of Bituminous is left. However, in the Karur highway project, we are making huge progress. We have completed most of the work which could not be undertaken during the monsoon. So, we are expecting to complete both the projects by March 2021, although the proposed deadline was November 2021."
A bypass road overpassing the Manachanallur town for a distance of 2.64 kms is being constructed at a cost of Rs 25.15 crore. While the road extension of Tiruchy-Karur highway is being constructed at a cost of Rs 55.75 crore.
Replantation drive:
The TNIE on Sept 23 had reported on how 139 trees are being axed for the road extension works of the Tiruchy-Karur highway. Although promise was made to re-plant the saplings in the same stretch once the construction was completed, no clarification was provided by officials back then. Speaking to TNIE on Tuesday, District Collector S Sivarasu said, as a re-plantation drive to the fallen trees, a total of 2100 saplings of native varieties are being planned to be planted in the same stretch of Tiruchy-Karur highway by April 2021 once the road construction work is over.