Madanur causeway washed away again in heavy flow

VELLORE: The ground-level causeway connecting Madanur in Tirupattur district with Gudiyattam in Vellore district across the Palar River was washed away early on Thursday bringing traffic to a grinding halt. Students taking their exams were badly hit by the disruption.

This was a repeat of what happened due to heavy rain last November when the causeway was washed away. It was repaired by the PWD who placed concrete pipes under sand bags to hold the pipes in place. As the incident occurred around 5.30 am there were no casualties.

According to Srikant of Ulli village on the Gudiyuttam side “the pipes were washed away due to heavy rain in the TN-AP border at Pillur near Vaniyambadi which resulted in heavy flows into the Palar River.” Most affected were 15 villages on the Gudiyattam side as Madanur on the other side is just a stone’s throw from the Chennai – Bengaluru highway and provides access to both work and schools.

Sriraman a student of the government HSS at Madanur said, “the school is practically on the banks of the Palar and hence when the causeway was washed away, we have to travel to Gudiyattam and from there to Pallikonda and then reach Madanur covering an extra 18 km.”

Locals told DT Next that the causeway would not have been washed away but for the theft of pipes which were placed as a barrage to slow the force of water before the causeway. “As there was nothing to reduce its force, the causeway was washed away,” said a resident.

However, what peeved Ulli locals was while Tiruapttur Collector Amar Kuswaha visited the spot to inspect the damage – despite only a minor portion of the causeway falling in that district, Vellore Collector Kumaravel Pandian did not turn up. Officials said they were waiting for the flow to reduce to start the repair work.