The Hindu Business Line : Four-laning of Tindivanam-Tiruchi section of NH 45 soon: Baalu

A SOLUTION to the piling up of vehicles on the busy Chennai-Tiruchi national highway is in sight with the National Highways Authority of India scheduled to take up work on the four-laning of Tindivanam-Tiruchi section of NH 45 next month. Already the Chennai-Tindivanam segment of this national highway has been made into a four-lane road.

But there is no proposal to make any fresh addition to the NH network and the priority is to make the existing 65,500-km long NH in the country a four-lane road network, Mr T.R. Baalu, Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, has said.

Speaking to newspersons in Coimbatore, he said Tamil Nadu had 22 roads running to a length of 4,212 km that had been declared as National Highways. Of this, work had been taken up to make nearly 3,300 km four-lane roads.

He said the foundation would be laid on March 2 for upgrading the Tindivanam-Tiruchi section of the National highway into a four-lane road. This work was expected to cost about Rs 1,500 crore.

When pointed out that because of the absence of bye-pass roads at Ulundurpet and Villupuram, and due to the frequent closure of the railway gates, piling up of vehicles holding up traffic for a long time had become a regular phenomenon, Mr Baalu said the proposed four-laning of the highway also included laying of bye-pass road at Villupuram. He said under the port connectivity project, the Madurai-Aruppukottai-Tuticorin highway was being upgraded at an approximate cost of about Rs 200 crore.

The Union Minister said the NH network ran to a length of 65,569 km and at present there was no proposal to make any new inclusion to this list. He said the NH constituted just 2 per cent of the total road network in the country estimated to be around 35 lakh km. But this NH shouldered nearly 40 per cent of the road traffic.

He said of the total NH network in the country, single-lane roads constituted around 35 per cent and double-lane roads formed 53 per cent. The four-lane roads constituted the balance 12 per cent. In some areas, even paddy fields topped with soil had been declared as NH. He said his idea was to make all the NH roads four-lane roads.

Asked about the bad condition of the Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri stretch of the Salem-Bangalore NH, the Minister pointed out that there were unprecedented rains. The repair works could be carried out only after following proper procedures. In some areas, the state governments themselves had taken up the repair works and where this could not be done, the NHAI carried out the repairs. When his attention was drawn to the poor condition of the Coimbatore-Mettupalayam NH that witnesses high-density traffic, Mr Baalu said the tender for the repair work on this road would be opened and he wanted this work to be taken up quickly. A provision of about Rs 7 crore had been made for executing the repair work up to the Karnataka border from Coimbatore on this road. The upgradation of the nearly 13 km stretch of the road between Coimbatore bye-pass and Coimbatore city on Coimbatore-Tiruchi NH would be done meeting specified norms in view of the high traffic.

On the need for a full bye-pass connecting the six major highways linking Coimbatore city with Salem, Tiruchi, Pollachi, Palakkad, Mettupalayam and Mysore, he said issues such as the density of vehicular traffic, the land acquisition process involved, etc, would have to be considered.

Asked about the poor condition of the NH from the Tamil Nadu border to Mysore (Coimbatore-Sathyamangalam-Mysore road), the Minister said this issue was not brought to his attention even during his recent meeting with Mr Dharam Singh when he was the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He assured that he would look into this issue.