more-in A six-lane greenfield road project connecting Coimbatore and Karur is to take off shortly. Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are holding discussions with the public for land acquisition and the plan is to float tenders for the build-operate-transfer project by August. The 182.5 km road will come up at an investment of ?2,400 crore and will have three toll plazas, said an official of the NHAI here. The total land to be acquired in Coimbatore, Tirupur, and Karur districts will be 2,957 acres. The official said the six lane Karur-Coimbatore bypass, with service roads, will include an outer ring road for Coimbatore. It will connect Madukkarai, Sulur, Karumathampatti, Annur and Perianaikenpalayam. Since this is a greenfield project, the entire alignment is new, according to the official. While the Karur-Coimbatore bypass is one of the long-pending demands of Coimbatore, consumer organisations here have urged the NHAI to extend the outer ring road to Mettupalayam. According to Vanitha Mohan of Coimbatore Citizen’s council, the city is growing and is expanding beyond Perianaikenpalayam. So the road should connect Mettupalayam too. Any project should look at the requirements for the next 10 to 15 years to serve its purpose. The NHAI should discuss the details with all stakeholders and consumer councils before finalising the plan. Moreover, three toll plazas could be a burden on the road users, she said. K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, said the NH 67 bypass was mooted in 2009 and dropped as the plan then was to have a toll plaza on an existing road. The road users did not agree to it and the State Government rejected the project. This holds good now too. The toll plazas should not come up on existing roads. Further, there was a plan for a Mettupalayam bypass. “What has happened to that project,” he asked. The Karur-Coimbatore bypass could face resistance if the NHAI did not discuss the proposal with all the stakeholders and take their opinions, he said.

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