As the Highways Department is all set to start work on the 10-km Avinashi Road elevated corridor project, the traffic congestion that the work will cause and the absence of alternative roads to go east of the city throw light on the Coimbatore Corporation’s failure to develop scheme roads.
The department taking up the project even as another east-bound road, the Trichy Road, witnesses traffic congestion because of flyover project has caused apprehension in the minds of the public that the city will soon witness heavy traffic congestion.
The most affected will be those who want to go east and those from areas sandwiched between the Avinashi Road and Trichy Road, rues S.P. Thiyagarajan, a civic activist.
“Avinashi Road acted as an alternative for those who wanted to avoid Trichy Road because of the flyover work. Very soon, road users will have no alternative to drive east as the department will take up the Avinashi Road project as well.”
For people from areas south of Avinashi Road and north of Trichy Road, the next four years is going to be difficult to move one way or the other as the carriage way in both the arterial roads is reduced, he adds.
It was highlighting this fact that DMK MLA N. Karthik issued a statement a few days ago, asking why the Department is showing urgency in taking up the Avinashi Road project even as the Trichy Road work in progress.
He says road users have fewer alternative roads to avoid either of the two roads and it is here that the Corporation’s failure in developing scheme roads is glaring. “The city has seen no scheme road development in the last 10 years, since the World Classical Tamil Conference that was held in 2010,” he points out.
The corporation under the then Mayor S.M. Velusamy did make the right noises about developing scheme roads. He had said that the Corporation would develop one scheme road in a year for five years so that the road users would get five roads in five years.
As of date the announcement is on paper, Mr. Karthik recalls.
A similar project that is on paper is the road along the Sanganoor Canal, starting from Mettupalayam Road to Trichy Road, connecting Sathyamangalam Road and Avinashi Road, says consumer activist and District Road Safety Committee member K. Kathirmathiyon.
As the department proposes to complete the Avinashi Road project in four years, the Corporation can at least look at widening and removing encroachments on roads that may serve as alternatives, he suggests.
Corporation Commissioner P. Kumaravel Pandian says when the issue came at the recent District Road Safety Committee meeting, the Corporation has assured full cooperation to ease traffic congestion.
The civic body is looking at alternatives and working with the City Police and the Highways Department and very soon will start work on roads identified as alternatives.