The campaign for the Lok Sabha election in Tiruchi has largely centred around some of the major infrastructure requirements that the city has been aspiring for more than a couple of decades now.
Some of the issues such as the expansion of the Tiruchi airport runway, laying of service lanes along Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway, and the completion of semi-ring road around the city, have been in the forefront in successive elections in recent years. This election is no exception to this with the candidates continuing to promise steps to address them.
“The issues largely remain the same and so are the promises of the candidates. But the aspirations of the people remain unfulfilled,” says S. Rajendran, a resident of Woraiyur.
Many city residents are of the opinion that other second tier cities in the State have witnessed better development. “Some of the other towns have witnessed rapid growth in comparison to Tiruchi, which seems to be suffering for want of effective lobbying. Except for a few, many of the promises made during recent elections have gone largely unfulfilled,” says C. Balasubramanian, advisor, District Exnora.
The integrated bus stand with associated facilities is the only major infrastructure project that has taken off in recent years. Apart from some long-pending issues, recent announcements made in the Assembly such as the construction of three elevated corridors in the city and the Metro Rail project too remain on paper, Mr. Balasubramanian says.
Despite completion of the bypass between Thuvakudi and Panjapur recently, the semi-ring road that was planned around the city over 15 years ago remains incomplete as construction of the bypass section between Panjapur and Thindukarai connecting the Tiruchi-Madurai and Tiruchi-Karur national highways remains grounded.
The bypass is to run from Thuvakudi to Thindukarai via Mathur and Panjapur and make for a semi-ring road connecting Thanjavur, Karaikudi, Madurai, Dindigul and Karur national highways.
The travel industry sees the runway expansion at the Tiruchi International Airport as a vital requirement to propel growth in the sector. With a swanky new terminal expected to be functional soon, the focus has shifted to the long-awaited runway expansion, which was stalled because of the tardy progress in land acquisition. The expansion of the runway to 12,000 feet will facilitate operation of wide-bodied aircraft.
Industry representatives underline the importance of designating Tiruchi as a point of call under the Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) to enable operation of flights for more international destinations from here. But the Centre has been reluctant to designate non-Metro airports as a new point of call for operating passenger services because of the imbalance in the number of points of call in favour of foreign carriers, industry sources said.
The stalemate over building service roads along the city stretch of the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway has caused considerable resentment among residents living off the colonies along the highway. Residents associations, which formed a federation, has been unsuccessfully lobbying for the cause for nearly 15 years now.
Neglect of Tiruchi in terms of improving rail connectivity and the poor progress made in the Cauvery-Gundar river linking project remain other major concerns for voters in the constituency.
