Half-laid Thiruparankundram road irks motorists, devotees

MADURAI: With the Vaikasi Visakam festival set to commence at the Arulmigu Subramaniaswamy temple in Thiruparankundram on Friday, the ongoing work on the underground drainage project as well as laying of AMRUT drinking water pipeline on Thiruparankundram main road (TPK Main Road) has posed a challenge to devotees in crossing the stretch. A 1.5-kilometre section of TPK main road from Alagappan Nagar to Pasumalai is damaged due to the works undertaken by the civic body.
Residents have urged State Highways department and Madurai corporation to repair the damaged road temporarily as it is used as approach road by devotees to reach the temple from the city.Devotees come to the temple on foot carrying Pal Kodam (milk for abhishekam) for lord Subramaniaswamy as part of the festival ritual. Though under the jurisdiction of State Highways department, the road has been handed over to the civic body for carrying out developmental projects including underground drainage (UGD) and AMRUT drinking water pipeline work. Commuters have been complaining against the traffic congestion caused due to the ongoing work as well as minor accidents caused due to the uneven gradient of the road.
Though the SH department has sectioned and laid a part of the road, another part filled with gravel has been posing threat to commuters. Two-wheeler riders lose control when they are forced to enter the part filled with gravel when a bus or four-wheeler uses the road. V P Manikandan, a civic activist, said, “In the last one month many minor accidents have been reported on the stretch as the road has been left half-laid. The road is cramped with vehicles when they close the railway gate in Alagappan Nagar which forces vehicles to pile up on TPK Main Road.”
A corporation official said that the work which was planned to be finished before the Vaikasi Visakam festival got delayed due to the summer rains and Chithirai festival. The drinking water pipeline work in Yohiyar Nagar, Pykara and Pasumalai will be over in the next one month, said the official. “We have requested the State Highways department to repair the road parallelly on stretches where we have finished the work for the sake of devotees coming for Vaikasi Visakam festival,” said the official. Asked why only a part of the road has been laid, a senior highways official said, “TPK road has water-logging issues and we are rectifying it by altering its gradients, but the work was delayed due to the summer rains.”