Trichy chokes without ring roads

Trichy: Trichy’s infrastructure lapses are not a local problem anymore. The recent closure of Old Cauvery bridge on Trichy-Chennai National Highway has spiraled into a pan-state problem with vehicles bound for Chennai and south TN hit by traffic diversion for hours.

This is the sixth major bridge work in the city in three years -- four at different locations are closed for reconstruction work while two new ones are being built to decongest the city. The cascading effects of traffic diversions have made authorities and the public sit up and realize the need for proper ring roads for Trichy city.Though two semi-ring roads were proposed, one remains incomplete for 15 years while the other proposed in 2021 has not taken off yet.

This has made not only Trichiites but even the floating population struggle to access NHs cutting through the city.Borders with 10 districts, city bifurcated by rivers and railway lines:Trichy which shares borders with 10 districts has seven major NHs pass through the city, with people over-depend on road overbridges (RoBs) and high-level bridges on rivers. Since Dec 2023, Trichy corporation, state highways, railways and NHAI have closed four prominent bridges for reconstruction, but none has reopened in the past 30 months.

If either a southern semi-ring road (NH 67 expansion) or a northern semi-ring road was available, the traffic bottlenecks could have been mitigated, residents said.

“Administrators should insist agencies expedite work. Closing multiple bridges without reopening even one is a blunder,” Shivasankar Sekaran, member, district road safety council, said.Trichy semi-ring roads, distant dreams:Police said absence of a proper ring road puts them in trouble whenever Trichy hosts a major political conference, or bridges have to be closed for maintenance.

While the southern ring road linking Trichy-Thanjavur NH with Trichy-Karur NH via three different NHs is partially incomplete, the northern ring road interlinking four NHs and two state highways including Trichy-Chennai NH has not progressed, and alignments are not finalized too.

“For northern ring road, we must float a re-tender to prepare DPR and alignment. The southern ring road is in an advanced stage, scrutiny of DPR is underway.

Work will start this financial year,” a senior NHAI official told TOI. “The demand seeking ring roads for Trichy will be taken to the notice of the road transport ministry to accelerate administrative process,” Trichy MP Durai Vaiko said.Railway bridges in dormant modeTrichy junction RoB (Aristo) and Fort station RoB (Maris) are the most delayed projects involving railways, Trichy corporation, and state highways.

Lack of coordination, poor progress in executing work, shortage of manpower and commercial LPG due to the West Asia war were reasoned for the delay. Closure of Maris RoB has crowded Chathiram bus stand junction and Karur bypass road areas, while Mannarpuram and Cantonment areas are bearing the brunt of Aristo bridge closure.

“Both Aristo and Maris RoBs will be completed between Sept and Oct 2026,” a railway source said.SH bridges on fast-track modeState highways projects including a RoB near Trichy town station in Devathanam and a new high-level bridge across Koraiyar river near Panjapur have been comparatively fast-tracked. While town station RoB is expected to open by Aug 2027, Koraiyar bridge will be completed by Jan. “Closure of bridges is cutting down quick and easy travel options for the floating population to bypass core city areas. Ring roads would have reduced vehicles from other districts in overcrowding the city,” Rajitvel Perumal, member, Trichy Intra-City Development Endeavours (TIDES), said.