Tiruvottiyur High Road may take another year.

It will take yet another year for work on Tiruvottiyur High Road to be completed.

The road has been widened in phases and tenders for road laying and construction of stormwater drains in the last one kilometre are expected to be called by month-end.

Sources in the highways department said Metrowater handed over compensation for the road cuts it carried out in the stretch up to Ernavur, only recently.

The work to widen the stretch from Toll Gate to Ernavur had been sanctioned in 2005-06 and work on one phase began in December 2007.

Since no contractor agreed to take up the 5-km stretch, the work had to be split among five contractors.

'The work has been very slow and though it is a crucial link to the north, it has taken the government seven years to complete work up to this level. The last portion of the road is in bad shape and looks like a mud road. It has several industrial units on either side. We need a quick solution since Metro Rail is also expected to commence work here soon,' said V. Rajkumar, a resident of Therady.

A highways department official said, since the area is a very old one, there are many service lines crisscrossing the road.

'Every 50 metres we dig, we end up cutting many lines and it takes five days just to restore them,' said the official.


THE HINDU