A day after a 75-year-old pavement dweller was found dead in an open trench, which was dug as part of an ongoing project to construct a causeway across the Kaundinya river in Gudiyatham town near Vellore, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has decided to enclose the stretch of the causeway, including the 10-foot-deep trench, with tin sheets to prevent any such untoward incidents.
S. Nelliammal, 75, a resident of Chekkumedu street that comes under ward 27 of Gudiyatham town, was found dead in the open trench in the early hours of Monday. Police said a few residents had spotted Nelliammal at the site on Sunday evening. At the time of the incident, the trench was stagnated with sullage.
Nelliammal had been living alone on footpaths after she quit her job as a sweeper at a nearby school a decade ago. The school was providing monthly financial assistance for her.
“The work site has been barricaded with a few wooden poles and reflective tapes. A few flashlights have also been fixed. Additional safety measures will be taken,” R. Rajesh, Junior Engineer (JE), WRD (Gudiyatham), told The Hindu.
Police said the existing precautionary measures, including reflective tapes, wooden poles and a mound of mud near the open trench, are inadequate to caution pedestrians and motorists using the stretch. Following the incident, police told the WRD officials to improve the safety measures, which includes covering the open trench with tin sheets, to prevent accidents.
At present, the traffic from Pernambut is diverted to the temporary route near the river, passing through Netaji Nagar, and Rajaram Nagar, to Periyar statue on the south side of the town. The alternative route, which is around one kilometre in distance, helps to reduce traffic at the central areas in the town during rush hours.
WRD officials said the trench was dug a month ago, as part of the ₹13.70-crore causeway work, to build concrete pillars for the new bridge. However, groundwater and sullage discharged by residents often seeps in, stagnating the open trench. Motor pump sets have been used to pump out the water before the work begins every day. Vellore Collector P. Kumaravel Pandian and Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan had laid the foundation stone for the causeway project in August. The bridge will be 165-metres-long and nine-metres-wide. With 17 vents, the bridge will be able to discharge 59,000 cusecs per minute. The work is expected to be completed by the mid of 2024.
The Kaundinya river is a tributary of Palar.
