Corporation to build service road in front of integrated bus terminus to ensure smooth flow of traffic on Tiruchi-Madurai NH

Tiruchi Corporation to build service road for IBT on Tiruchi-Madurai NH due to NHAI elevated corridor delay.

The Tiruchi Corporation will build a service road in front of the Integrated Bus Terminus (IBT) coming up at Panjapur along the Tiruchi-Madurai National Highway in the city, to facilitate easy ingress and egress of buses.

The move comes in the wake of the delay in the construction of an elevated corridor planned by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) near Panjapur as part of the semi-ring road project.

Preparation of a detailed project report for the semi ring road project, which includes the elevated corridor near Panjapur, has run into delay as the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) tender for preparation of the report attracted only a single bid.

A combined DPR is to be prepared for widening the two-lane bypass between Thuvakudi and Panjapur into a four-lane way and the building of a four-lane road between Panjapur and Thindukarai on Tiruchi-Karur National Highway, besides the elevated corridor.

The NHAI has since gone for second call of the tender. With the process of preparing the DPR getting prolonged, the long-awaited project could still be some months away from reaching the execution stage.

Meanwhile, the State authorities are planning to open the IBT by mid-January and a service road is deemed essential to ensure smooth entry and exit of buses to and from the IBT without affecting the flow of traffic on the national highway.

“The Corporation will build the service road as of now and we have requested the NHAI to reimburse the cost to the civic body later as they would have to build a service road anyway (as part of the elevated corridor),” Collector M. Pradeep Kumar told The Hindu. Sources in NHAI said that a decision on the request would be made by the authorities in its headquarters.