Rail over bridge near Vaniyambadi station remains a non-starter

The project has been plagued by land acquisition problems

A decade and a half after it was first proposed in 2007, the road over bridge (ROB) that would replace the existing manned railway crossing (LC81) at the Vaniyambadi railway station near Tirupattur still remains a non-starter, mainly due to a delay in land acquisition by the State government.

Residents said the existing railway level crossing was closed frequently everyday. This affected the movement of vehicles, including government and school buses, to reach the Old Town. Residents, including office-goers, traders and students, were made to wait at least 20 minutes before the level-crossing was opened. “We have organised several protests highlighting the demand for the bridge. We have also petitioned government officials and elected representatives but nothing has happened so far,” said Farooq Ahmed, a long-time resident of the area.

Originally, the bridge project was proposed by the then DMK government in 2007 at an estimated cost of ₹13 crore to replace the railway level crossing. Due to procedural delays, the project was again taken up by the State government in 2011 with a revised estimate of ₹17 crore. The project was to be executed jointly by the Southern Railway and the State Highways Department.

Since then, the project has been plagued by land acquisition problems. In January 2019, as a stop-gap measure, the State government modified the project into a subway at a cost of ₹22 crore. In fact, the railway level crossing was closed to facilitate work on the subway. However, due to a delay in commencing the work, the Madras High Court directed the Southern Railway to reopen the level crossing.