The bypass road between Thuvakudi on Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway and Mathur on Tiruchi-Pudukottai National Highway on the outskirts of the city will be completed and opened for traffic by the end of this month, Collector S. Sivarasu has said.
The stretch forms part of bypass road that will run from Thuvakudi via Mathur and Panchapur and make a semi-ring connecting the highway branching out from Tiruchi to Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Madurai and Karur.
While construction of a bypass road between Thuvakudi and Panchapur was taken up by NHAI as part of widening and development of Tiruchi-Karaikudi NH 210, the section between Panchapur and Thindukarai was taken up as part of development of Tiruchi-Karur NH.
Work abandoned
However, the concessionaire of the Tiruchi-Karaikudi development project abandoned the work after completing about 75% of the work due to financial constraints. NHAI awarded a fresh contract paving the way for the resumption of the work on Thuvakudi-Panchapur stretch last year. The pending work on the stretch is being executed at a total cost of about ₹122 crore.
The road stretch running for a length of 12.70 km would include construction of a road over-bridge, a major bridge, six minor bridges, 12 box culverts and 10 pipe culverts. The stretch will be completed initially and thrown open for traffic, Mr.Sivarasu told reporters on Tuesday. The Mathur-Panchapur section would be completed within six to eight months after obtaining clearance from the Railways for the construction of a road overbridge.
Other section
Mr.Sivarasu said land acquisition for the other section of bypass road between Panchapur and Thindukarai on Tiruchi-Karur Highway will be completed in about six months and the stretch is expected to be laid within 18 months from the date of commencement of work. The work on this stretch was abandoned midway a few years back after farmers objected to the road being laid across irrigation tanks. Based on a High Court directive, a fresh alignment was finalised and the land acquisition process was under way.