After many decades, tribal hamlets atop Peechamanthai hillock in Vellore got their first bitumen road as a new black-topped 5.75 km stretch between Nekkani and Kollaiyam tribal hamlets was opened to the public on Thursday.

Officials of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), which executed the work, said that before the new stretch, tribals were using a mud pathway, formed by the British rulers in the 1900s to monitor the thick forest areas.