Coimbatore: A day after Minister SP Velumani laid the Bhoomi Pooja for the 10.10 km, Tamil Nadu's longest flyover on Avinashi road here, DMK MLA N. Karthik has condemned the move, citing that already traffic issues are in a worst state, due to the ongoing flyover works in many arterial roads across the city.
Coimbatore: A day after Minister SP Velumani laid the Bhoomi Pooja for the 10.10 km, Tamil Nadu's longest flyover on Avinashi road here, DMK MLA N. Karthik has condemned the move, citing that already traffic issues are in a worst state, due to the ongoing flyover works in many arterial roads across the city.
Addressing the press here on Friday, the Singanallur Constituency MLA said that "We are not against the development of the the city. But, we are hugely concerned about the overall inconvenience and hindrance, the Avinashi road flyover works will cause to people and businesses, at this point. Motorists are already struggling to commute in the city due to the flyover works at Ukkadam, Trichy road, Kauvdampalayam which are crucial junctions in the city. In this chaos, if Avinashi road flyover work begins now, there will be huge traffic commotion."
He slammed that in view of the upcoming elections, the AIADMK government is rushing to commence this major flyover work and add it in their progress card as their achievement. The project is ear-marked at an estimate of Rs. 1621 crore and much huge projects require proper planning for seamless execution. Flyovers are structures that are meant to serve the people for several decades, implementation of work in a haphazard manner will lead to wastage of tax payers money and ultimately not serve the purpose.
The MLA pointed City's Gandhipuram flyover as an example for poor and hasty execution of work by the AIADMK. Hence, he urged that the Avinashi road flyover works should not commence until the other ongoing flyover projects are completed.
MLA N Karthik questioned on how the general public will commute, if all the major roads in the city are under maintenance for overbridge constructions? All these are for publicity stunts to attract voters, not for public welfare, he alleged. Does the AIADMK government want people to fly, until all flyovers are completed?" he questioned.
He also complained about how the traffic congestion can go very bad, as they are now on the Trichy Road where a bridge is still under construction. He also complained about how it's difficult for drivers to drive in a narrow space, with traffic and dusty conditions.
He also mentioned that " During the DMK regime under Late. CM Kalaingar Karunanidhi, the government started building bridges in SIHS colony, Neelikonampalayam, Thaneerpandal Hope College and the railway bridge in Ganapathy Avarampalayam by allocating budgets and futuristic construction ideas. But even after 10 years the AIADMK government hasn't made any progress in the existing bridges which are left unconstructed halfway."
Also MLA N Karthik during the press meet today said that around 1lakh people around the area which have unfinished bridges are still struggling because of delay in construction and that AIADMK is now hurrying up the process of building a new bridge on Avinashi road just for the sake of luring the voters and for extra commission during the building of the bridge.
MLA N Karthik during his address also said that the State highway ministry comes under the control of Chief Minister Edapadi Palanisamy and how has he approved such projects not caring about public inconvenience. And all flyover works in Coimbatore are done at a snail pace.
He also said that either the government must plan to finish all the projects one by one or that the government will face the wrath of the public for wasting their money on building a bridge that is of aub-standard quality and also useless like the Gandhipuram bridge.
Also MLA N Karthik said that the AIADMK government should stop doing everything to facilitate the Central government and to act with spine. He also said that DMK party members along with public will protest against the AIADMK government, if they kick start the Avinashi road flyover works.