Trichy: In a major relief to the commuters, civil work to widen the existing culvert across Bharathiyar Road near Vazhividu Murugan temple resumed on Thursday after city police diverted traffic through the area. The narrow culvert had been causing stagnation of drainage and rainwater near Trichy Railway junction for many years. The difficulty in enforcing traffic diversion was cited as a reason to delay the widening works, which was suspended since late September 2018.The Times of India had carried a report on the lack of coordination between Trichy corporation and city traffic police in completing the culvert widening work.The corporation took up the culvert widening work on September 6 as the decades-old comparatively small structure was not able to discharge the drainage and rainwater resulting in the inundation of the area near the Trichy railway junction. It was decided to widen the culvert to prevent drainage and rainwater stagnation near Vazhividu Murugan temple and Trichy junction’s entrance. While 25% of the work was completed, civic body officials said that it was suspended as the permission to divert traffic over Bharathiyar Road was delayed by traffic police. The work to increase the width of the culvert from 2 feet to 3.5 feet was stalled since then. Apparently, TOI in its September 30 edition carried a report titled ‘Culvert widening works delayed due to failure in diverting traffic’.Following the report, the civic body said that traffic police have agreed to make temporary changes in the traffic on Bharathiyar Road to complete the culvert widening work. “As traffic diversions are in place, we have launched works on the other portion of Bharathiyar Road, close to Trichy Railway junction on Thursday,” a corporation official said. The corporation said that the Rs 10-lakh widening work could be completed in 20 days.

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