Atlast Bridge is ready to open ...
The Ondipudur rail overbridge will be ready for two-way traffic by Tamil New Year's day, Highways Minister M.P. Saminathan informed the Assembly on Tuesday. For now, only two lanes would be open to traffic. The road overbridge would be ready for four-lane traffic by the month-end. Replying to a question from S.M. Velusamy of the AIADMK, the Minister said preliminary work began in 2000. But progress was slow, and he and Minister of State for Railways R. Velu had conducted a joint inspection and taken steps to expedite the work. Though the contractor had time till June to complete the work, he agreed to complete a part of the work by April 14. Right now, work was on round-the-clock to meet the deadline promised by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to the people of Coimbatore, he said.All aspects of the work, including curing of the concrete, would be over by April 14, the Minister said. Work on two additional lanes was on, and the four-lane road overbridge would be ready by the end of the month. Mr. Velusamy said there was an undue delay on the part of the Railways to complete its part of the work. He was sceptical that all the work would be completed by April 14. The approach road to the overbridge was narrow. The highways department had not done any work, and there would be traffic backlog once the road overbridge was thrown open.
