Tamil Nadu gets 693-km road upgrade

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORT) in a recent move has cleared 693 kms of of State Highways to be constructed as NHs and the targeted road length is being handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for widening of the length. The list of roads that are having high volume of traffic, lengthy and economically viable have been selected and also the assets of the roads, including space on the sides, trees, bridges, culverts and drains, are also being considered and the move would also benefit the States via bringing down maintenance costs. The roads that have already been selected include the SH 4: Arcot–Villupuram road (114 km), SH15: Ooty-Kottagiri-Mettupalayam-Sathy Road (161 km), SH 17: Malur-Hosur-Adhiyamankottai Road (103 km) and the 248 km long SH 29: Tanjore-Pattukottai-Paramakudi-Kayalkudi road that runs through four districts of Tanjore, Pudukottai, Sivagangai and Ramnad. A total of 5,004 km of National Highways run through the state, of which 1,998 km of roads are maintained by the National Highways Wing of the State Highways Department with funds from the MORTH. The remaining 3,006 km are maintained by the NHAI, which develops the road by widening them into two-lane, four-lane and six-lane facilities.