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Subway work delay hampers traffic

NAGERCOIL: Delay in construction of a subway to decongest traffic in Nagercoil has disoriented traffic on the main roads. The diversion of traffic to facilitate the construction has resulted in more congestion and visitors from other districts and neighbouring Kerala going in circles around the town.

Adding to the confusion is the shuffling of parking space for buses at Anna and Christopher bus stands. The Marthandam buses now occupy space used by those plying on Tirunelveli route. In the absence of announcement through the public address system or boards informing the change, the public are put to a lot of inconvenience in these two bus stands.

Even the buses that pass through the two bus stands take an alternative route. Buses operating from the Anna bus stand are routed through Ozugunaserry, Anna Statue and Vadaserry bus stand. Similarly, buses from the Vadaserry bus stand are operated through Anna Stadium, Nagaraja temple, Meenakshipuram and Anna bus stand. Drivers who are not familiar with Nagercoil go in circles to take the alternative route to reach Kanyakumari.

Though the civic authorities had announced that the subway work would be over in three months, the progress so far does not show that it will be completed in time. With the onset of the southwest monsoon it will be all the more difficult. The construction of a pedestrian subway to link the Anna bus stand with Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer Municipal Park was sanctioned to decongest traffic.

The subway will be 26 metres long, with a walkway width of 5.50 metres and a height of 2.75 metres. The Central Government has already allocated Rs.61 lakh for the project. The Nagercoil municipality and the State Government will bear the remaining cost.

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