Work to construct a new bridge that will replace the existing dilapidated British-era arch-shaped bridge across Nicholson canal on the two-lane Old Bangalore Road in Vellore has begun to prevent inundation to residential areas along the Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 44).
Officials of the Department of State Highways, which is executing the ₹2-crore project, said that traffic on the route was diverted a few days ago in order to facilitate the bridge work. The dilapidated bridge has been demolished to provide adequate space for the new bridge to come up. “The old bridge could collapse anytime as the structure was very weak. The new bridge can discharge a large volume of excess rainwater into the canal,” R. Prakash, Assistant Divisional Engineer (ADE), State Highways (Vellore), told The Hindu.
Funded under the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme 2022-23, the new bridge will be 30 metres long and 15 metres wide. It comprises five vents and each vent will be five metres wide and three metres high to allow excess rainwater to flow into the canal during monsoon. The new facility has been designed to discharge more rainwater without affecting the structure of the bridge.
Highways officials said that the bridge work would be carried out in two segments due to continuous flow of water in the canal. As a result, the entire work will be completed only before the onset of northeast monsoon.
Areas, including Shenbakkam, Mango Mandi and Ambedkar Nagar along the highway get flooded during monsoon due to slow discharge of rainwater through the culverts and bridges on the stretch and also owing to blockade in the water channel. Civic officials of Vellore Corporation use high-powered motors to pump out stagnated rainwater in these areas during monsoon.
The 9-km-long Nicholson canal is a key water source for the Palar as the water channel discharges excess rainwater from nearby hillocks like Pinchamandai, Kurumalai, Nechimedu, Pallakollai, and Vellakalmalai to the Palar river through a series of water channels. Local lakes, like Suriyakulam, Otteri are also filled up. For residents, the canal helps to prevent inundation of the town during monsoon, Corporation officials said.
