Villagers block Tirumangalam-Sengottai highway demanding subway at Allampatti

Residents of Allampatti near Tirumangalam staging a protest in Madurai district on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Scores of villagers, including school students, staged a road roko on the Tirumangalam-Sengottai fourway road, under construction, demanding a subway in Allampatti village for the people to cross the highway, on Thursday.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly, R. B. Udhayakumar, was among those who were arrested by the police.

Stating that frequent road accidents in the village has caused fear among the residents, Mr. Udhayakumar said that the local people have been petitioning the Madurai Collector and officials of National Highways Authority of India for the last three years demanding a subway for their safe passage.

The Tirumangalam MLA, under whose constituency the village comes, said that most of the 1,300 houses in the village are located on one side of the highway, while a ration shop, school and an anganwadi is located on the other side.

“People, especially children, need to cross the road multiple times a day. Even few days back four children were injured in a road accident,” Mr. Udhayakumar said.

Recalling that the villagers had given up their land for facilitating the road widening work, Mr. Udhayakumar said this had necessitated the need for a subway.

“Even when the road is under-construction, the villagers are facing road accidents. Once, the work is completed and vehicles zoom past at high speed, the threat is only going to increase,” he added.

P. Jaganathan, an AIADMK functionary, and local resident said that the Allampatti panchayat and Tirumangalam Panchayat Union have passed resolution demanding a subway. But, NHAI officials want them to use a subway that has been constructed over 500 metres away from the village.

“How can the officials expect the people to walk over one km just to cross the road to reach the school, anganwadi and ration shop on the other side of the road,” the MLA asked.

He said that NHAI should provide the subway at least as a mark of gratitude for the people who had given up their residential lands for laying of the fourway highway.