The Rural Development Department has taken up a work on providing road facility linking Ramji Nagar and Aruvakudi – a vital link at an expenditure of Rs. 1.15 crore. It was a felt need of the residents of the Ramji Nagar, Punganur, and Poolankulathupatti in the Manikandam block in the district.
The road, laid about 20 years ago, accounted for seven pipe culverts. The route has been laid in-between the fields in a phased manner in the last two decades. Although mini buses are operated through this single road, it has been a back-breaking exercise as the road lacked adequate maintenance for the past several years.
The Rural Development, as a special case, took up the work under the “Rural Road Infrastructure Development for operation of buses” scheme of the Rural Development and evolved a special plan for converting the old pipe culverts into concrete ones, an official source said on Monday. The work involved a challenge as irrigation waters passed through the pipe culverts across the fields.
The need for developing and maintaining the road became inevitable following a couple of massive projects executed by the National Highways Authority of India.
While the Ramji Nagar area on western side was developed into the Tiruchi – Manapparai National Highway, the Aruvakudi side on the eastern side was developed into a four-lane National Highway on the Tiruchi – Madurai highway.
The rural road would be vital link for the agriculturists in mobilising their agricultural produce to either Dindugal or Madurai. It would benefit a large number of students as a large number of colleges had come up in the last two decades both on the Madurai and the Dindigul Highway, the source said.
The official said the entire stretch was being given a facelift. The width of the road would be 7.5 metres now with a carriage space of 3.75 metres.
“The carriage space will now facilitate a more comfortable drive on the stretch,” the source said, explaining the difficulty she had in accessing the villages in the absence of adequate road facility.
