Vehicle count on to help NHAI widen highways

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has entrusted the work to a Mumbai-based private company. Under the process, which commenced in the southern districts recently, the Madurai-Kollam road through Tenkasi was studied initially. Now the study has shifted to the Rameswaram region where the works for widening the NH had already commenced. Three engineers from the company, with the help of Automatic Traffic Counter and Classifier, are involved in studying the vehicles at Kunjarvalasai village near Rameswaram.

One of the engineers, requesting anonymity, said that vehicular movement is being studied and based on it, the need to widen the road will be considered. The study is carried out in both four-lane and two-lane roads.

The study was found out that more than 15,000 vehicles travel to Kerala from Madurai via Tenkasi on a daily basis and more than 5,000 vehicles travel to Rameswaram island from Madurai via Ramanathapuram. The report would be submitted to NHAI and its officials would take a call on expanding the roads.

The two-lane roads would be expanded to four-land roads and the four-lane roads to six-lane roads, said the engineer.