TIRUNELVELI
Following repeated appeals from various quarters, particularly from the labourers working in the tea estate in Manjolai and the tourists visiting this scenic spot and also the Manimuthar waterfalls throughout the year, the 6.50-km battered road between Manimuthar Dam check-post and Thalaiyanai is to be re-laid.
In the second phase, the damaged stretch between Thalaiyanai and Manjolai is to be re-laid once the State government allocates sufficient funds.
While a good number of tourists visiting Manimuthar Waterfalls every day, particularly during the summer, visitors in restricted numbers visit picturesque Manjolai, Kakkachi, Nalumukku, Ooththu and Kuthiraivetti after obtaining mandatory permission from the Forest Department for visiting these spots, all core zones of Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR).
Though the trip to these spots, housing tea estates, would be a memorable one for every visitor as the salubrious climate prevailing there will be electrifying, the road leading to these places has been in a bad shape for the past few years.
The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation that operates small buses from Tirunelveli and Kallidaikurichi to Kuthiraivetti beyond Manjolai and Naalumukku in the Western Ghats too deploys only drivers and the conductors having a vast experience in operating the bus along this dangerous route.
After appeals from the public, the badly damaged ghat road, through which manoeuvring the vehicle is always a challenging but thrilling task, is to be re-laid shortly between Manimuthar Dam check-post and Thalaiyanai in the first phase.
As a precursor to this desirable makeover, the surface of the existing damaged road between Manimuthar Dam check-post and Thalaiyanai is being removed with earthmovers.
Undeterred by this exercise, the tourists are still driving up to Manimuthar Waterfalls even now to take bath in the poor flow in the waterfalls. Those who are upset with this thin flow take bath in water flowing into the dam from the pool in front of the waterfalls.
“After repeated appeals were made in the Assembly, fund has been allocated for re-laying this stretch for about 6.50 km in the first phase. Based on the release of funds, the second phase will be taken up to re-lay the road between Thalaiyanai and Manjolai,” sources in the KMTR said.