Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s promise to build an elevated corridor on the city stretch of the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway along with service lanes has not enthused residents welfare organisations which insist that the service road project, as originally planned, should be completed at the earliest.
The Chief Minister had held out an assurance to the residents while campaigning in support of the MDMK candidate for the Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency, Durai Vaiko, and the DMK candidate for Perambalur, K.N. Arun Nehru, at Siruganur on Friday.
Listing the promises made by the DMK in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Stalin said that an elevated corridor, a demand frequently raised by the School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, would be built between Thuvakudi and Palpannai on the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway. “I now assure you that along with the elevated corridor, we will build service roads there,” he said, seeking to strike a balance and meet the demands of both the residents and traders on the issue.
The Chief Minister’s assurances came in the wake of persistent demands for construction of services lanes on the 14.5-km stretch by residents living along the highway on the one hand and stiff opposition to the land acquisition for the purpose by property owners who face displacement due to the project on the other. Residents and property owners had formed rival federations to lobby for their demands. The Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi-Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Roads had been lobbying for building service lanes for over a decade. It contends that in the absence of service lanes, the road had become accident-prone causing loss of lives and injuries to many road users.
On the other hand, property owners and traders had organised themselves as Tiruchi-Thanjai NH67 Salai Virivakka Panikalal Bathikapaduvor Kootammaippu (Federation of Persons Affected by Widening of Tiruchi-Thanjavur Highway) and press for an elevated corridor to protect the livelihood of a large number of people who will be affected by the project.
Land acquisition
Land acquisition for the service lanes had come to a standstill in recent months. In the meantime, the National Highways Authority of India had started preparing a detailed project report for construction of an elevated corridor. While the traders body had been happy over the move, the residents were not.
Office-bearers of the Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchi-Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Roads planned to meet the Chief Minister in Thanjavur on Saturday to press their demand but decided against it following Mr. Stalin’s public statement on the issue. “The Chief Minister has said that the service lanes will be formed when the elevated corridor is built. We are not happy with the announcement. We want the service road project to be executed immediately. We decided against meeting the Chief Minister to avoid an embarrassing situation,” said S. Sakthivel, chief organiser of the federation.
The federation had conducted a signature campaign to enlist support for this demand. “We had collected signatures of over 18,000 persons and 37 residents organisations and planned to submit these to the CM. We will now send them through surface mail,” he said.
The elevated corridor may take several years to materialise. “On the hand, the service road is a sanctioned project already. If the government is keen on meeting our demand, the land acquisition process should be resumed immediately as 75% of it has been completed. Even if they resume work now, the service lanes can be built before the next Assembly elections,” Mr. Sakthivel added.
