Land acquisition done for Thiruvanaikoil RoB service road

Trichy: The state highways department on Monday completed the acquisition of land required to finish the service roads for Thiruvanaikoil Periyar Nagar road over bridge (RoB). The work for the RoB is expected to be completed ahead of the monsoon. However, resorted to a protest on the Srirangam-Thiruvanaikoil road opposing the process.

Although the four-lane RoB across the railway tracks of Periyar Nagar was inaugurated in June 2019, the service roads were not provided.

Since then, the highways department has been completing the roads for Mambalasaalai end, Kallanai end and Thiruvanaikoil arms of the RoB. Except for 50m stretch in Thiruvanaikoil end, the department had completed the remaining stretches. As the occupants of the properties required for the service road did not vacate on their own, the highways department, revenue department and police personnel forcibly acquired the land. A portion of the land of Hazrat Syed Masthan mosque was also acquired. Manithaneya Makkal Katchi leader M H Jawahirullah condemned the acquisition.

“We gave them ample time to vacate their belongings. As they didn’t, we had to evict them forcibly to complete the service road. Compensation for land acquisition was settled, for a few, it is under process,” a senior highways official added. tnn