Public Works, Highways and Sports Minister Adhav Arjuna on Sunday said the Tamil Nadu government has made it clear that those seeking tenders in government departments need not pay any “funds” linked to the Chief Minister, the Chief Minister’s family, political parties, ministers or MLAs.
Speaking in Coimbatore, the minister said the Highways Department is shifting focus beyond road-laying to road safety, noting that around 18,000 people died in road accidents in Tamil Nadu last year. He said the government aims to bring fatalities down drastically and will allocate budgetary support specifically for protecting road users.
He attributed accidents to factors such as high speeds, inadequate signalling at U-turns, and unsafe junctions where panchayat roads connect to state and national highways. The minister said stricter enforcement, awareness measures and penalty mechanisms to reduce speeding would be introduced, with an announcement on a road-safety law expected in the budget.
Citing the Neelambur–Madukkarai bypass, he said about 600 accidents have occurred there and more than 200 people have died in Coimbatore alone. Studies are under way to widen roads up to the Kerala border and to examine extending an elevated corridor by about 5 km to ease congestion near the G.D. Naidu flyover.
The minister said highway patrolling from Chennai to Kanyakumari would be increased and hospitals would be built in accident-prone stretches to provide treatment. He added that tenders called in the past are being re-examined, tenders issued over the last year have been kept on hold, and problematic bridges would be re-audited through institutions such as IIT. He also said vacancies—about 2,000 in the Highways Department—would be filled and that curbing corruption could help create more jobs.
