Eastern Greenfield Ring Road (EGR), starts at Ettimadai, the southern bypass road in Coimbatore and ends at Narasimhanaickenpalayam area.
Coimbatore: While there are countless infrastructures that contribute to the development of a city, it is no exaggeration to say that road transport infrastructure has always had its own place.
For a city and region, that boasted Rajakesari Peruvazhi - a highway 2000 years ago, the significance of road transportation doesn’t need more validation.
A famous quote by John F Kennedy is worth remembering now, "American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good."
For industries, transportation to and from industrial cities like Coimbatore, the import and exports, the movement of workers towards the city are all built on the road development and transport facilities.
This will help us in paving the way for the next phase of development of the city. Despite existing road transport and flyover transport infrastructure facilities for Coimbatore, bypass transport is seen as essential to fuel the growth of Coimbatore and connectivity to neighbouring towns.
Coimbatore, also known as the Manchester of South India, is a city full of small and medium enterprises, IT parks, hospitals, educational institutions, shopping malls and airports. As the main bypass here, vehicles plying on the Chennai-Bangalore-Salem route use only the L&T bypass road going towards Kerala.
For a long time, the industry and the public have been demanding more bypasses. In this scenario, the Ring Road bypass is going to be a boon for those who are looking forward to the bypass.
Like an ECR for Chennai, an EGR for Coimbatore
As there were reports that the Greenfield bypass was coming up in Coimbatore, the Simplicity News Team spoke to the concerned top officials about it. Based on that, here are some important details we come to know about the road:
This means that the Eastern Green Bypass is preparing to play a major role in the international development of Coimbatore city. Named "Eastern GreenField Ring Road", the road begins on the NH 544 highway in Ettimadai, a southern suburb of Coimbatore.
From there, the bypass moves eastwards and connects the Kochi and Salem national highways and moves northwards. It passes through Madukkarai, Karanampettai, Kaniyur and other areas and ends at Narasimhanaickenpalayam on NH 67 road leading to the Nilgiris and Mettupalayam, the northern suburbs of Coimbatore.
The "Eastern GreenField Ring Road" is a 50-meter-wide greenfield bypass. The highway is a four-lane bypass with two vehicles travelling on each side.
The estimated project cost is Rs 3,500 crore. This fund includes all works including land acquisition, construction work, remuneration of contractual employees, etc.
The construction work, which is being carried out by the National Highways Department, is projected to last for two years. Now, in the first phase, a draft list has been prepared. The draft report has been sent to the National Highways Head Office in Delhi by a team of executive engineers and top officials of the Coimbatore National Highways.
The acquisition of the land and the next phase of construction work will begin once the higher authorities give their nod, officials said.
Excellent Planning - Siruvani Soil is a smart city...
We spoke to Kathiravan, an expert on the "Eastern GreenField Ring Road" and the "NON STOP 96 km" Green Filed Bypass from Ganeshapuram to Karnataka and on the Master Plan Architect of Coimbatore City Development on behalf of SimpliCity News.
He said, “Known as the Manchester of South India, Coimbatore is a city full of small and medium enterprises, IT parks, hospitals, educational institutions, shopping malls and airports.
At this stage, these bypasses will go a long way in the development of Coimbatore city at an international level and for the development of the city. By the time these far-sighted projects are completed, the attention of all, from industrial investors, will be turned to Coimbatore.
Those travelling from Tamil Nadu to Mysore via Hosur use the bypass road called Mysore NICE Road. It is a by-pass from Electronic City on the outskirts of Bangalore to Mysore without entering the city.
This reduces the total time taken and reduces transportation costs. Accordingly, these two bypasses of Coimbatore will help in avoiding traffic wastage.
The existing L&T bypass will become the most used regular road by people in another five years. The reason is that the area will see an increase in real estate, setting up of industrial corridors, urbanization, integrated bus stand, north, south district, vehicle traffic towards Kerala.
Thus the current L&T bypass has a lot of traffic congestion. To prevent this, the "Eastern GreenField Ring Road" and the "NON STOP 96 km" Green Filed Bypass from Ganeshapuram to Karnataka will be constructed.“
Industry leaders happy
The question arose as to how far the road infrastructure would help the industry. Speaking to various industry leaders, they said that these two bypasses will take industrial prosperity to the next level.
COTMA Association President Sivakumar said “the bypass will be useful for the export and import transportation of the industry. This is aimed at greatly reducing transportation costs.
Small and medium enterprises that order jobs for large companies will increase. Similarly, more importantly, this transport infrastructure is attractive among multinational companies.
Apart from COTMA, other industry bodies in Coimbatore have been demanding that the work of constructing the bypass should be completed at the earliest.
In total, these two "Eastern GreenField Ring Road" and the "NON STOP 96 km" Green Filed Bypass road from Ganeshapuram to Karnataka have come late to Coimbatore region, but it is no exaggeration to say that the best solution has arrived.