Allocate 45 metres for Palpannai-Thuvakudi service road as per court rule: Federation

TIRUCHY: Federation for Retrieval of Tiruchy Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Road appealed to the Highways Department to allocate the promised width of the service road as per the court direction, to ensure the safety of the commuters, said the federation president, S Subramanian, here on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, Subramanian said that the Federation has been fighting for a service road between Thuvakudi and Palpannai in the Tiruchy-Thanjavur bypass for several years, as the stretch has witnessed several hundred fatal accidents over the past two decades.

“We approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, which directed the highways department to ensure allocation of a 45-metre width for the service road, and the officials agreed to it. However, when they submitted the periodical report before the court mentioned that they had allocated just 33 metres instead of the promised 45 metres. This would pose a threat to the people residing along the stretch,” he said.

He said that the federation has filed a counter-petition demanding that the court direct the officials to follow its earlier ruling. “The same was stressed during the meeting held a few days back in which the District Collector, Tiruchy MP Durai Vaiko, Corporation officials and the council members took part. The elected members accepted the plea and assured to stick to the measurement that the court had directed,” he said.

Subramanian also said that the federation had appealed to the officials to reconstruct the accident-prone Sanjeevi Nagar junction at Tiruchy-Chennai bypass with a proper median and a four-lane road with an additional extension of road for 7.5 metres from Sanjeevi Nagar to the Cauvery bridge.