The slow progress in the widening of the Nagapattinam-Thanjavur section of National Highway 67 has come as huge disappointment for residents of Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.
The poor condition of the road makes for back-breaking ride for thousands of commuters and tourists visiting places of attraction in the region every day. Work on widening this stretch of NH 67 for a total length of 78.53 km was expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
With the stretch being full of curves and criss-crossing water courses, widening of the road was considered vital to improving road safety and checking accidents. The project, sanctioned at an estimated cost of ₹396 crore, to strengthen the road as a two-way highway with paved shoulders has been progressing at a snail’s pace.
“The Thanjavur-Nagapattinam four-way road project was originally sanctioned about 10 years ago in Parliament as a four-lane project and it was announced that it will be completed by December 31, 2017. Unfortunately the project was subsequently reduced to an extended two-lane road. Even this has not been completed, several years after the work commenced,” said S. Ravichandran, President, and P.Senthil, Secretary, Tiruvarur Development Advisory Council.
The condition of the road has become bad and dangerous with a number of potholes and has turned unfit for travel. Accidents have become frequent, he lamented.
Various associations of Tiruvarur even staged a protest in February. A peace meeting was convened by the district authorities in which NHAI officials also participated. It was assured that repair and relaying of the road would be completed within three months.
“But even after six months, the road remains the same and dangerous. It seems the project time has been extended by about another year. Surprisingly, no work has been carried out by the contractor,” Mr.Senthil charged.
Short stretches of the road have been widened for about two to three km at different places. This is more dangerous as motorists tend to speed up only to encounter sudden bumps and bad stretches. This leads to most of the accidents, locals complain.
The contractor of the project has applied for conversion from “rigid to flexible” pavement citing various reasons, sources in NHAI said when contacted. The application is under examination by NHAI headquarters and a decision is expected soon. Once a decision is taken, the work would resume soon.