TIRUPPUR: Farmers in protest against the Velampatti toll plaza, withdrew their protest on Wednesday, after the district collector ordered for the removal of the toll plaza office building as well as two additional lanes that were built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) encroaching the Velampatti pond.
The National Highway (NH) 381 connects Avinashipalayam with Avinashi in the district. The central government had allotted Rs 162.7 crore for converting the road to four-lane. Under this project, the NHAI had set up a toll plaza at Velampatti in Avinashipalayam, which was met with a public outcry.
In this context, the NHAI allegedly planned to make this toll plaza functional starting Tuesday night.
Following this, members of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Padhugappu Sangam, Velampatti Anti-Toll Plaza Struggle Committee and the public staged an indefinite protest in front of the toll plaza from Tuesday night and continued until Wednesday morning. Officials including District Collector T Christuraj, and SP Abhishek Gupta, held talks with protestors at the collectorate, on Wednesday.
The collector assured to take steps to fulfil their demands, following which they gave up the protest.
P Krishnasamy, a social activist who filed a case against the toll plaza, said, “The Velampatti pond has a water spread area of about 4.36 acres. Of this, NHAI occupied about 1.25 acres and constructed an office building and two lanes of the toll plaza in 2018. I had lodged a complaint with the district administration then and they had ordered the Pongalur BDO to remove encroachments, on April 8, 2022, but no action was taken. Therefore, I filed a case in the Madras High Court and they ordered a re-survey of the puddle and removal of any encroachments on March 4, 2024.”
“During talks, we also put forward other demands including a complete toll fee waiver for locals. The collector assured to take action on those as well,” he added.
Following the collector’s order, work to remove encroachments on the waterbody commenced on Wednesday evening.
When TNIE attempted to contact the collector, he did not accept the call. NHAI officials said, “Steps are being taken as per instructions of the District Collector. The Velampatti toll plaza will be made operational soon.”