Four-lane projects likely to be over by July

TIRUCHI: The four-lane projects on the Tiruchi-Madurai section of National Highway 45 B and the Tiruchi-Tindivanam section of NH 45 are expected to be completed before July, except for a few grade separators and bridges in the urban areas.

Four-laning of the highway portions will be completed by June/July, according to sources in the National Highways Authority of India. The highway stretches can be fully opened for traffic in the next couple of months, even if there are slight delays in the construction of the grade separators and bridges.

A major portion of the work on the Tiruchi-Virallimalai-Madurai section had been completed, the sources said. A major chunk of the pending work was in a five km stretch starting from Tiruchi City to Panchapur, which included the construction of a new by-pass road from Mannarpuram. Construction of the grade separator at Mannarpuram, across the Defence lands, had just gathered momentum and the by-pass road would come up within a three to four months.

The four-laning of the 124-km long highway could reduce travel time on the Tiruchi-Madurai sector by about an hour. Six by-pass roads were coming up as part of the project, including those at Tiruchi, Viralimalai, Thuvarankurichi, Kottampatti, Melur and Othakadai.

Though the project was scheduled to be completed by August 2008 originally, delays in land acquisition forced the NHAI to revise the completion date to June 2009.

NHAI sources also indicated that the four-laning of the Tindivanam-Tiruchi section of NH 45 was likely to be completed by June. Except for the three grade separators in Tiruchi city and few road overbridges, most of the work had been over.