Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Can the parties build bridges in Vaniyambadi?

P.V.V. Murthi

VANIYAMBADI MAY 16. Come byelection and a constituency will see a lot of development, especially repairs to and laying of roads.

The May 31 poll in Vaniyambadi is no exception. Road engines are criss-crossing villages in the Assembly constituency. On Tuesday, workers blocked the road, leading to Alangayam from Vaniyambadi, opposite the Sericulture department office. Enquiries revealed that the road bridge under the broad gauge rail track was to be repaired and relaid.

At Vellakuttai, the road in a group housing colony was levelled with jelly stones and red soil only on Tuesday. It is to be tarred soon.

A cross-section of voters said it knew too well that the works were being undertaken with intent to woo the electorate, but was happy that development works were being undertaken at least on the eve of a by-election. In fact, the absence of development works and the failure of the government to redress people's grievances were likely to sway the voters.

The failure of successive governments to reconstruct the iron bridge, built during the British regime in 1914, near Cutchery Road, which collapsed more than seven years ago, is one of the local issues raised by voters in Vaniyambadi town. They said neither the 1991-96 AIADMK regime nor the successor DMK Government bothered to rebuild it. Though there were three surface bridges which served the purpose, the iron bridge was useful whenever the surface bridges were flooded during heavy rains and consequently unending traffic snarls occurred in the town. This bridge connected Vaniyambadi town to nearby villages.

Another grouse of the local voters was that the surface bridge built at a cost of Rs.14 lakhs on Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru Road under the Municipalities Urban Development Programme (1994-95) during the DMK regime and opened on July 31, 2001 by the former Minister, K. Pandurangan, two months after the AIADMK came to power, collapsed within a month of inauguration.

The bridge could now take on only by two-wheelers, but posed a danger to pedestrians and vehicle-users.

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