2 road projects in Coimbatore district to begin soon
Coimbatore: Works for two important road projects in Coimbatore district, costing about Rs.97 crore, will begin soon, the Minister for Highways and Ports, M.P.Saminathan, told a press conference here on Monday.
He pointed out that the Chief Minister, M.Karunanidhi, laid the stone for both at a function here on Saturday.
One of the projects was to six-lane the 16 km Neelambur-Uppilipalaym stretch on the NH 47. On this stretch, apart from the airport, three engineering colleges, two medical colleges, four arts colleges besides a number of schools, industrial units and textile mills were located.
In addition, the IT park had also been proposed on the same stretch. Due to these reasons, the traffic on the road had grown multifold.
In some places, this road was two-lane; in some it had three lanes and was four lanes in some other places. Hence, it had been decided to make this stretch into a six lane (widening it from 11 metre to 23.2 metre). This would involve construction of four bridges and nine culverts. The Government had given sanction for Rs.27 crore. He allayed apprehension among some sections of the public asserting that this work would not require acquiring of lands. Mr. Saminathan said that the other project was a ring road for 45 km and widening the existing roads to benefit the hosiery town of Tirupur. This 99-km project in total would cost Rs.70 crore. Tenders had been floated for the Rs.40-lakh bridge between Santhi Theatre and the Tirupur Textiles and the approval of the Chief Engineer of Highways had been expected in 15 days.
To a query, the Minister said the long-pending Ondipudur overbridge work would be positively completed by April 14 as promised by the Chief Minister. The delay was due to the Railways. Now that the Railways had started the works and the State Highways had geared itself up for completing its left-out portion of 16 metres on either side of the bridge, `there would be no more delay'. Similarly, the Railways had promised to complete the Valankulam overbridge work by September this year and the State Highways would complete its portion by the year-end.
Asked about the traffic congestion bedevilling Combatore , District Collector Neeraj Mittal said a study had been taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to introduce Bus Rapid Transit System in the city. Mr.Pongalur N.Palanisamy, Minister for Rural Industries, responding to a question on vehicular population in the city, said that with the proposed bus stand on the Mettupalayam Road at a cost of Rs.6.25 crore, the city would have four-bus stands- Gandhipuram, Ukkadam, Singanallur and Mettupalayam Road.
