Madurai: The Tamil Nadu Highways Department currently functions through multiple wings, including construction and maintenance, projects, bridges, quality control, national highways, rural roads (NABARD) and a highways research centre. These wings operate at the state level under a single Chief Engineer.
The department is a large workforce, with around 10,000 road workers and about 8,000 other staff and officials. A government order issued on March 13 said the department’s wings would be brought under one unit in the name of reorganisation, while keeping quality control and the research centre as separate entities.
Employees have raised concerns that the move has been announced without prior indications over the past five years and has come close to the end of the government’s term. They say the restructuring could lead to significant administrative changes.
As per the plan, Chief Engineer posts are expected to be created in Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli, similar to the existing post in Chennai. Staff members also fear that many employees working across districts could face transfers, adding to unrest within the department.
