The Department of Highways should repair the North and South Bypass Roads and the Thiruvananthapuram Highway as these are filled with potholes.
| Photo Credit: SHAIKMOHIDEEN A
The badly-damaged North and South Bypass Roads and the busy stretch connecting NGO Colony intersection and the Konganthanparai intersection on the Tirunelveli – Kanniyakumari National Highway here have become black spots with hundreds of craters.
Even though the 7 Km-long North and the South Bypass Roads, being used by a few thousand vehicles, were laid only two years ago, serious cracks started developing at several spots along this stretch within a year. The problem worsened with the cracks becoming craters due to poor quality and no step was taken to fill it with bitumen.
Unfortunately, the Department of Highways, the custodian of these roads, does not show any interest in either repairing the road or holding the contractor concerned responsible for this pathetic work.
As the stretch between BSNL Office on South Bypass Road and the Vannarpet traffic island is in the worst shape and unmotorable for more than a year, it is causing accidents involving bikes everyday besides badly damaging the cars and autorickshaws. Though, the public are clamouring for repairing this road, the official machinery is in no mood to fulfil this genuine demand for no reason.
When former Mayor and BJP functionary Bhuvaneshwari brought broken bricks to this spot and started filling-up the potholes on Tuesday, she said that she would raisie this issue repeatedly as no official was interested in repairing this road to ensure the safety of the taxpayers.
“Thousands vehicles including that of top officials and public representatives are using this busy road everyday… But nobody is interested in repairing this road. Rampant corruption is the only reason behind this badly damaged road. If the official machinery is not interested in repairing the road, we’ll do it on behalf of the BJP,” Ms. Bhuvaneshwari said.
The stretch between NGO Colony intersection on the southern side of the South Bypass Road and Konganthanparai intersection is also in similar shape. After the Tirunelveli Corporation’s underground drainage work started along this road, the pits dug for sinking the manhole have been left as such to seriously damage the vehicles. The hundreds of potholes on this road make manoeuvring of vehicles along this road really precarious.
“This 5-km-long stretch connecting the 4-lane Tirunelveli – Kanniyakumari national highway near IRT Polytechnic with NGO Colony intersection is being used by thousands of bikes, cars, buses and lorries everyday. Residents’ welfare associations from this area have sent more than 10 complaints explaining the problems the motorists face everyday due to the shabbily maintained road to the Department of Highways. However, no official from this department inspected this road and our ordeals continue,” says Herald, a resident of Teachers’ Colony on this road.
After the breach in the drinking water pipe, this road near the recently created traffic island near INS Kattabomman Signal Receiving Station remains like a ploughed field for more than five months. Consequently, accidents involving bikes have become a daily affair. However, the Department of Highways has turned a blind eye to this serious issue and the motorists’ ordeal continues.
District Collector R. Sukumar promised to take immediate steps to repair these roads and re-lay the roads after the monsoon to make these stretches safer for vehicle users.
Published – November 26, 2025 06:28 pm IST
