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Roads choke as flyover construction drags on



A huge pile-up of vehicles near Tiruchi railway junction as the construction of a new road overbridge is yet to be completed.Photo: M. SrinathM_SRINATH 

For a piece of land, ROB near railway junction awaits approval from Defence Ministry
Commuters in the city are facing a torrid time due to severe traffic congestion at the road intersections near Kallukuzhi as the construction of the multi-level road overbridge (ROB) near the Railway Junction drags on.

The Highways Department has been unable to complete the Chennai arm of the ROB as the Ministry of Defence is yet to give approval to provide a piece of its land for the project.

The project, taken up by the Railways and the Highways Department, is being executed in two stages by reconstructing the narrow road over the bridge across the railway lines near the Tiruchi Junction on the Madurai Road intersection. A new three-lane road-overbridge with six arms is being built at a cost of Rs. 44.28 crore adjacent to the existing bridge in the first stage. Once this is completed, the old bridge will be dismantled and a new bridge with two arms will be built in its place.

The project has been severely hampered by delays in land transfer and acquisition from central agencies such as Defence and Railways and also some private owners. Construction of the first stage of the flyover began in 2014 and was scheduled to be completed by February 2017 and the second stage by 2019. Although over 85% of the first stage of the project has been completed, the Highways Department could not complete the Chennai arm of the bridge yet.

The Highways Department has sought about 2,685 square metres of the Defence land and of this, only 1,600 square metres were required for the first stage of the project. The Highways Department has been pushing hard to get the in-principal approval. Recently, even Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami made a representation to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking her help in getting the Ministry’s approval for transfer of lands for this and a few other projects in the State. But the approval is yet to come from the Ministry, sources said.

Meanwhile, traffic snarls have become the order of the day at the ROB site. The service lane leading towards Railway Junction from Mannarpuram and the sharp intersections under the bridge have emerged as major traffic bottlenecks. Vehicles pile up to Mannarpuram at times, especially during nights, when a large number of mofussil buses head towards the Central bus stand.

“The situation is very bad. It takes not less than 15-20 minutes to negotiate the small stretch of road during peak hours. The poor condition of the road in front of the P&T Colony and the intersections near Kallukuzhi beneath the bridge are leading to frequent accidents too,” said H. Ghouse Baig, a resident of Crawford and a consumer activist.


The poor condition of the road in front of the P&T Colony and the intersections near Kallukuzhi beneath the bridge are leading to frequent accidents too

H. Ghouse Baig

Consumer activist

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