Motorists call for lighting and safety measures on Vellore’s VIT High Road

Motorists in Vellore have called for streetlights and other safety measures on the recently opened ₹90-crore Sathuvachari–VIT High Road near the Chennai–Bengaluru National Highway. The road provides a short route to key government offices, including the Collectorate, the Superintendent of Police’s office, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, banks and the Vellore Corporation zonal office. Motorists said it also helps them avoid narrower stretches in the area.

G. Kumar, an ambulance driver, said ambulances used the road to help patients reach medical facilities, including at night. He said streetlights would improve safety for road users.

The new route forms part of the 3.2-kilometre VIT Road. Motorists said that only the new bridge across the Palar River had bright LED streetlights, tiled footpaths and a median. The remaining carriageway was reportedly dark after sunset.

E. Pavithra, a motorist, said driving on the unlit stretch was risky because of speeding vehicles and the glare from their headlights. She said the road also lacked warning signs, reflectors, blinkers and other features intended to control speed and improve visibility.

The bridge is a 475-metre-long, 15-metre-wide, four-lane structure. Officials of the State Highways Department, which maintains the facility, said the responsibility for installing and maintaining new streetlights, including payment of electricity charges, lay with the relevant civic bodies and panchayats under existing norms. A department official said the road was being used despite not being fully complete in terms of safety measures.

Additional funds would be required to implement those measures, the official said. The bridge was built 20 feet above the dry riverbed, three metres higher than flyovers in Katpadi constructed in 2009, to reduce the risk of structural damage and inundation.