Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sellur gets overbridge after 8 yrs

Madurai, Jan. 22: The rail over bridge constructed at a cost of `29 crore at Sellur in the city was inaugurated on Saturday. Union minister and Madurai MP M.K.Alagiri opened the bridge in the presence of collector C.Kamaraj and Madurai West MLA K.S.K.Rajendran.

The implementation of the long-pending project, the works for which began way back in 2003, was one of the poll promises of Mr Alagiri. A joint exercise by the state highways and the southern railway, the new bridge over Thathaneri railway gate on the Palam station road between Sellur and Aruldosspuram is expected to ease traffic congestion during the times of closure of the railway gate at Sellur.

For the motorists, office and college-goers, it has been a terrible experience to wait for over 15 minutes in the peak morning and evening hours when the railway gate is closed. Now that, it has been thrown open for public use, the road-users can heave a sigh of relief, officials said.

However, the traffic police stress the need for another bridge across the Vaigai connecting north and south Madurai to find a permanent solution to the traffic menace as the vehicles using the new Sellur bridge would get crammed at the traffic signals near the Jain Vidyalaya school and the Thevar statue junction at Goripalayam causing snarls.

The Sellur bridge boasts of 942 m length and 11 m breadth.

Its height is double the height of a normal overbridge and has been constructed using modern technology, officials said.

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