Karaikudi-Trichy-Chennai national Highway,Karaikudi-Ramanathapuram highway

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will shortly take up the work on developing the Tiruchi – Karaikudi National Highway, said Vellakovil M. P. Swaminathan, State Minister for Highways.

Addressing officials at a meeting to review the ongoing works in the district, Mr. Swaminathan said a sum of Rs.404 crore had been sanctioned for developing the stretch in packages, spread over a cumulative length of 108 km.

He said by-pass roads will be set up at five centres of Tiruchi, Keeranur, Pudukottai, Tirumayam and Karaikudi. The by-pass roads would facilitate faster movement of vehicles and reduce considerably the travel time between Tiruchi and Karaikudi .

The project involved construction of two railway overbridges, one under-pass, three major bridges and 10 minor bridges. A total of 67 culverts would be widened for facilitating fast movement of vehicles on this sector, he added. The work would be completed within 30 months from its commencement.

On the ongoing projects taken up during the current financial year in the district, the Minister said the state government has sanctioned Rs.50.61 crore for various road works.

Roads to a cumulative length of 233.68 km were being developed or widened or re-laid in parts of the district. This apart, work on construction of 16 minor bridges had been taken up at an estimate of Rs.5.15 crore and seven major bridges at an outlay of Rs.11.78 crore. All these works would be completed by the end of this financial year.Five new bypass roads would be built as part of the development of Tiruchi-Karaikudi National Highway (NH 67) taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Land acquisition for the project is underway in full swing and pre-construction works have already begun. The notifications for the land acquisition have been issued and the process of awarding compensation to the owners would be completed soon.

Nearly 80 per cent of the land acquisition process has been completed, sources in the NHAI told The Hindu on Tuesday. About 421.5 hectares of land is to be acquired for developing the highway running for 110 km. The highway is to be developed on annuity basis at a cost of Rs.374 crore with two lanes and paved shoulders. The project, sanctioned under the National Highways Development Project-Phase III A, has been awarded to Transstroy Ltd-OJSC Consortium, an Indo-Russian joint venture.

The project would involve construction of a new by-pass road connecting three major national highways (NH), the Tiruchi-Thanjavur NH 67, the Tiruchi-Pudukottai-Karaikudi NH 210 and the Tiruchi-Madurai NH 45B in the outskirts of Tiruchi. The bypass would be a semi-ring road running connecting Thuvakudi, Mathur and Panchapur on the three highways.

Four other by-pass roads would be built as part of the project at Keeranur, Pudukottai, Tirumayam and Karaikudi. The construction of the by-pass roads would come as a big relief for motorists as well as residents of these highly congested towns, through which the highway currently runs across. The Karaikudi-Ramanathapuram highway is to be developed under a separate project.



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