Virudhunagar - Kanyakumari National Highway relaying work likely to begin next week

MADURAI: Overlaying the

Virudhunagar

-

Kanyakumari

four-lane

national highway

for a stretch of 180 km is likely to begin before the beginning of May, says a reply from the public information officer and project director of the

National Highways Authority of India

(

NHAI

),

Madurai

, K P S K Mathivanan.

The reply to

RTI

activist R Pandiaraja added that the work is likely to be completed by October 20.

According to the project director, milling could be planned for 1.5 km a day whereas relaying could be done only for 1.2 km a day. Mathivanan added that work on studs, thermoplastic painting and road furniture is also planned.

To questions pertaining to improving the green cover along the national highway, the NHAI official stated that they have targeted planting 583 trees for every one kilometre. But this is subject to the availability of vacant places. There is no plan to plant trees on the median

Pandiaraja said the NHAI and the contractors concerned for the maintenance of the sections between Virudhunagar and Kanyakumari should make use of the night lockdown and other restrictions on movement of vehicles in view of curtailing the second wave of Covid-19 to expedite and complete relaying work at the earliest.

“Carrying out such work in full swing now will reduce inconveniences to road users and enable speedy completion of work for the men at work,” he added.

The activist also stressed on carrying out adequate safety measures and placing proper signboards to indicate that work is in progress to avert accidents on the busy highway in case of diversions.