To ensure a smooth ride for vehicle users, road relaying work on the busy Tiruchi - Madurai national highway stretch is expected to begin in the coming months. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approved the road-relaying project on the 125-kilometer stretch, and tenders will be issued soon to identify the agency responsible for its execution. The road relaying work is done once every five years due to the wear and tear on this highway stretch that serves a high volume of vehicular traffic. According to a senior NHAI official, the tender will be released this month in order to finalise the agency. “If everything goes as per plan, the work is expected to commence in the next three to four months”, the official said, adding that the plan was to complete the entire project in one year. The project is to be executed at an estimated cost of ₹ 159 crore. As stated by the official, as part of the project, special attention would be paid to patches along the stretch that had suffered the most wear and tear. The Tiruchi - Madurai national highway stretch connects Chennai with Kanyakumari in the south. This stretch sees a high volume of freight and passenger traffic in both directions, necessitating the stretch's relaying every five years. The relaying project is divided into two sections: highway work and road furniture and sign board work. Among the projects planned for road furniture are proper road markings, the provision of road studs, the installation of sign boards to indicate the direction, and LED blinkers. The NHAI has already identified accident-prone black spots due to recurring incidents of road accidents along this stretch. It intends to implement a slew of safety measures along this stretch, including the construction of vehicular underpasses, light vehicular underpasses, and service roads at the identified locations. The vehicular underpass near Manikandam, a few kilometres from Tiruchi City, is expected to open for traffic in March, according to the official. See also: NHAI begins working on final stretch of Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway Nitin Gadkari announces funds for national highway projects in Karnataka