Irked by holdup, truckers repair battered highway

CHENNAI: Irked over the inordinate delay in the six-laning of the

National

Highway 4, members of the Tamil Nadu State sand Lorry Owners’ Federation in a sign of protest, on Thursday attempted to repair a battered section of the

road

between

Vanagaram

and Poonamallee.


The protesters put up posters with caricatures of Union minister for road transport & highways Nitin Gadkari emerging from a pothole, moneybag in hand, reading, “We paid crores but where are the roads?”

“The highways department collects toll for a six-lane road, but where are the lanes? NHAI acquired land to widen the road six years ago, but when will it start work? We want an answer,” S Yuvaraj, president of the federation said. Yuvaraj was arrested along with 20 others for the protest at Velappanchavadi junction on Thursday.

Yuvaraj added that several complaints have been filed with the police against NHAI officials, holding them responsible for the fatal accidents due to the shoddy road. Two people were killed in the past three days on the stretch.

At junctions in Velappanchavadi, Thiruverkadu, and Parivakkam, the bitumen has made way for craters. And with heavy vehicles pounding the road during peak hours, there is little space for two-wheeler riders, who are forced to negotiate a risky ride on the road’s shoulders to beat the crawling traffic. “We have no other option, otherwise we will be late to work,” says Uma, a resident of Nerkundram. “Our vehicles get punctured and there is a lot of dust because of the debris the traffic police use to fill the potholes.”

“You call this a highway? You should see those up in the north,” said Taufiq, a truck driver who had come from Haryana. “Had this been my vehicle I would not have driven it on this road,” he said.

Highways department sources said a couple of days ago regional officer of NHAI, Pawan Kumar, inspected the road and asked officials for an estimate to take up the repair work between Poonamallee and Maduravoyal immediately.

“Water tankers ply on the route through the day, affecting the road badly. We will lay a concrete road on the stretch soon,” said a senior official. Meanwhile, the official said they have awarded tender for six-laning of NH4 from Walajapet to Karaipettai and that work would commence by the end of February. For the second part of the project from Karaipettai to Sriperumbudur, the tender would be awarded shortly. “We have also started preparing a detailed project report to construct an elevated corridor from Sriperumbudur to Maduravoyal. It will take another five months to compile the DPR,” project director of Krishnagiri, NHAI, D V Narayanan said.