Residents oppose any move to reduce width of service lane along Tiruchi-Thanjavur highway

Residents welfare organisations have opposed any move to reduce the width of the service lanes to be built between Palpannai and Thuvakudi along Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, S. Subramanian, president, and other office- bearers of the Trichy-Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Road Meetpu Kootamaippu, expressed concern over the Highways department’s move to revise the ‘right of way’ of the service roads to 33 metres. “This has been stated in the affidavit filed by Highways department before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on March 6,” the federation office-bearers said. The affidavit was filed by the department in compliance with an earlier directive of the court on a writ petition filed by the Kootamaippu last year.

Although the width of the service road should have been 60 metres as per the original plan of the National Highways Authority of India, it was reduced to 45 metres subsequently by the State government, which has to acquire land for the project.

The High Court, in an 2019 order, had accepted the opinion of the Chief Engineer, Construction and Maintenance, State Highways department, that the width of service lanes can be 45 metres on normal stretches, 60 metres at locations where vehicular underpass or overbridges are to be constructed and 50 metres at other locations where bus bays are to be built.

The State government should ensure that the service roads on the 14.5-km stretch between Palpannai and Thuvakudi was built as per this order. “But the move to reduce the width to 33 metres now has raised a question mark over the safety of the people and could lead to traffic congestion and accidents,” Mr. Subramanian said.

Campaign planned

Meanwhile, S. Sakthivel, Chief Organiser, Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Road, in a separate press conference, stressed the need for building the service roads as per the 2019 High Court order.

He called upon the Union government to allocate funds for land acquisition. The federation has planned to launch a campaign to send representations in large numbers to the Union Highways Minister by registered post to press their demand, he said.