HC direction to state highways dept

G Thamarai had filed a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the state highways department to survey and construct road bridges

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the State Highways department to look into the issue of construction of a highway bridge connecting some areas in the Tiruvallur district, a portion of which collapsed in January.

G Thamarai, a retired district rvenue officer of Tiruvallur, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the state highways department to survey and construct a road bridge connecting Manavala Nagar, Varadaraja Nagar and Kavangarai Village in the district.

"The aforesaid cannot be a subject matter of a PIL, as the High Court cannot allocate budget for it. However, it is a matter of public convenience, and thus, the State Highways Department should look into the issue, so that necessary arrangements can be made," the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, said.

The petitioner said on January 2,one portion of the state highways bridge collapsed and the traffic over it was banned. Hence people were using a low level bridge connecting Tiruvallur railway station. If this was also damaged then there will not be any link to the railway station for the people staying in Manavala Nagar.

Hence construction of the road bridge was a pressing matter. As there was no response to his representation in this connection to authorities, he filed the present petition, the petitioner said.