State Highways to construct new bridge across Then Pennar river in Tiruvannamalai

A bridge across the Then Pennai river between Thondamanur and Agarampallipattu village in Tiruvannamalai in December 2024. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The State Highways Department is planning to construct a new high-level bridge across the Then Pennar river between Agarampallipattu and Thondamanur village near Thandrampattu town in Tiruvannamalai as a replacement to the collapsed bridge there, as residents have been pressing for their demand of easy connectivity to reach nearby towns.

The proposal of the Highways Department comes after the newly-opened ₹15.9-crore bridge across the river collapsed when excess rainwater of over two lakh cusecs was released from Sathanur dam, located 24 km from the village upstream, following heavy rainfall triggered by Cyclone Fengal in December. “Ever since the bridge collapsed, we had had to trek at least 20 km to reach nearby towns like Thandrampattu and from then, it has been a long-standing demand of the residents of at least 8-10 villages,” D. Pulivendan, president, Thondamanur village panchayat, said.

The bridge that collapsed was inaugurated by Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports E.V. Velu, on September 2, 2024. “Technical design and estimated cost for the proposed bridge across the river is ready. Work on the new bridge will commence in the coming months,” a State Highways official told The Hindu.

According to Highways officials, the project to construct the proposed bridge would be executed by the Construction and Maintenance wing of the Department, led by P. Gnanavel, Divisional Engineer (DE), State Highways (Tiruvannamalai), with funds sanctioned under the NABARD scheme. As per plan, the proposed high-level bridge will be 250 metre long and 12 metre wide. The height of the new bridge will be at least 12 metres — five metres higher than the collapsed bridge.

Officials said that an increase in height, especially the decks of the bridge, would help the structure to withstand huge influx of excess rainwater released in the river during heavy rainfall. The rise in height of the new structure was decided based on a study of massive floods that happened over the past 100 years, officials said.

Another key change is that the proposed bridge would be built away from the collapsed structure. Highways officials attribute change of river course to be the reason for moving away from the earlier location of the bridge. “The new plan is to build the bridge at least 200 metre away from the collapsed bridge as the river course is much more straight now. The study found that the curved portion of the river could have been the reason for the structural instability of the earlier bridge that collapsed,” said an official.

Highway officials said that the proposal for the new bridge has been sent to the State government for financial clearance as technical study for the project has been completed. The project will be announced by the State government in the coming weeks before tenders were floated for the new bridge.

Published - June 05, 2025 09:24 pm IST