Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100752950300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Salem

Residents demand a wider bridge

Staff Reporter

Centre and State have taken no action, they say

A bridge too narrow: Residents agitating in front of Salem Railway Junction on Monday demanding the widening of a rail underbridge. – Photo: P. Goutham

SALEM: People of several residential colonies in Sooramangalam zone staged a demonstration in front of Salem Railway Junction on Monday urging the railway administration to widen a rail underbridge in Bodinaickanpatti.

The 1.22 metre width and 1.6 metre high bridge is used by more than 5,000 families in Aandipatti, Bodinaickanpatti, Kattur and several other colonies to access the city.

The bridge is so narrow that only two-wheelers can pass through it. Residents of these colonies have been demanding for long to widen the bridge to facilitate the movement of four-wheelers.

The Central and State governments had failed to initiate any action to widen the bridge and provide better connectivity to the colonies, residents charged.

Police personnel and revenue officials pacified the agitators.

Meanwhile, officials said that the Salem Corporation submitted a proposal to the railways stating that it would bear 50 per cent of the cost for widening the bridge. But the railways asked the civic body to bear the total cost of the project. The Corporation had submitted a proposal to the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration for the construction of a new bridge at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore recently.