Construction of the new road over bridge (ROB) across the railway track at Periyar Nagar on the Thiruvanaikovil Trunk Road in the city is expected to commence soon.
At a stake holders meeting held on Thursday, officials from departments of highways, revenue, transport and police discussed traffic diversions that would be required to be put in place to facilitate the construction of the bridge. Representatives of traders association, residents and consumer organisations attended the meeting. Suggestions on the traffic diversions to be enforced were recorded at the meeting.
Although the Highways Department had planned to begin construction of the bridge earlier this year after the opening of Odathurai road over bridge, it was deferred apparently due to the intervening Assembly election.
The Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, a public sector undertaking, will construct the railway portion of the proposed ROB. The organisation is said to be keen on early construction of the bridge as it falls on the Tiruchi-Valadi section, where track doubling work is in progress.
Sources in the Highways Department indicated that the minutes of the meeting of would be put forward to the Collector. Once the district administration gives permission for the traffic diversion, work would begin. Initially, work would be taken up on construction of a subway adjacent to the existing bridge so that at least light vehicles could be diverted through it without much disruption of traffic on the busy road.
The Highways Department had commenced construction of a subway last year as part of the project. The work on subway had to be suspended during the monsoon due to high groundwater table and mud slides.
The new four-lane ROB will replace the existing narrow two-lane bridge that has turned a traffic bottleneck in Srirangam in recent years. The State government has sanctioned the project at an estimated cost of about Rs. 47 crore. The Highways Department has planned to commence construction of the main bridge structure and the subway simultaneously. The subway is expected to be ready in about 45 days.
The existing narrow bridge at the site, which is to be dismantled to make way for a new bridge, had turned a major traffic bottleneck in Srirangam in recent years. The project, sanctioned a few years back, had to be kept in hold as the Highways Department had to await the completion of the new Odathurai bridge, through which a major portion of the traffic has to be diverted.
Published - June 03, 2016 12:00 am IST
