The latest news is that the TN state Highways Department would be taking up the OMR, ECR link project. This would be done by constructing a bridge over the Buckingham Canal that runs parallel to the two highways. Sounds fantastic right!!
It must be taken into account that the proposed link road would be for 1.4kilometres from Neelankarai n ECR crossing Buckingham Canal and it would pass through Okkiyam- Thoraipakkam to reach the OMR-Pallavaram Thoraipakkam Radial road junction.
For constructing 860m of the link road along with a bridge across the canal from the OMR junction in phase-1, the state Highways Department had invited bids.
The existing link roads are located in Thiruvanmiyur and Akkarai that are nearly 10km apart from each other. By means of the proposed link road, the people living along ECR would be able to reach the Chennai city much easier and traffic congestion at Sholinganallur and Thiruvanmiyur junctions would be eased.
It is now said that when the link road gets completed fully then it would divert atleast 40% of the traffic from OMR- Pallavaram Thoraipakkam radial road junction. This was pointed out by a senior official belonging to the Highways Department.
In 2014, an amount of Rs 204 crores was sanctioned for the link road project and it was revised down to Rs 180 crores now. The reason for this was due to the highways department’s decision to take up the work in two phases. Point is the project cost also included land acquisition costs.
The senior official later spoke about how as per the new proposal the highways department has decided to proceed with the formation of a link road from OMR to Buckingham Canal and improve the parallel road to the canal. This would provide connectivity to ECR through the existing roads beyond the canal to ease the traffic congestion at OMR, Sholinganallur and Thiruvanmiyur junctions.
Information collected is that the remaining stretches from Canal to Neelankarai would be taken up as per the sanction and this would be after the acquisition of land in Neelankarai. The senior officer concluded that the proposed link road would be of 860 metres.