Slow construction of bridges in Chennai is creating traffic issues
Posted on: 20/Jun/2018 9:30:00 AM
In Chennai city the construction of seven bridges has been going on in seven places is known. The news that has come out now is this construction work is very slow and it has been creating traffic issues. The vehicles getting accumulated in the peak hours is a major issue now and it has become a daily routine also. The deadline for building 5 of these bridges is already over.
The places in Chennai city where these bridges are built are Pallavaram, Vandalur on GST Road, Koyambedu, Kolathur- Retteri Junction (On Jawaharlal Salai) plus in other places like Velachery, Medavakkam (On Velachery- Tambaram Road), Medavakkam (On Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road) etc. The sad piece of information now is none of the bridge work has been completed though the civil works started about 18 to 24 months back by the metro wing of the state highways. An amount of Rs 526.60 crores is being used in building these bridges in many places in Chennai. Few reasons that are causing delay in the construction of these bridges are sand scarcity, delay in getting clearance from traffic police and administrative issues with the contractors etc.
A senior official belonging to Highways department expressed his thoughts and spoke about how by this 2018 end one bridge construction would be fully completed as the works in Velachery Vijayanagar junction is going well. For the last four years the problem is vehicular congestion and this was confirmed by few motorists. It must be noted that many residents have shifted their houses beyond Kovilambakkam and Pallikaranai etc. A resident of Pallikaranai spoke about how during the peak hours it takes around one hour to reach Medavakkam bus stop from Guru Nanak College. Not only that the issues of commuters In the Tambaram main road continue in another few kilometres. This is due to slowing down of vehicular traffic by the construction of bridge.
The construction of flyover in Velachery-Tambaram Road began in the year 2016. It is now revealed that 50% works have completed and this bridge would be opened for the public in February 2019 if everything goes well. This bridge would allow traffic in as many as 3 directions namely Medavakkam-Mambakkam, Sholinganallur- Medavakkam and Mount-Medavakkam.
It is also brought out that many motorists face difficulties once when they enter GST Road from Chengalpattu after crossing the congested Vandalur Zoo junction. The GST is said to be one of the busiest roads in India and 2.2 lakh vehicles travel in this GST. The bridge construction here might be delayed by another 3, 4 months. A regular commuter shared his thoughts about the traffic congestion and said along the Pallavaram- airport section, the GST Road has become narrow and many motorists going to airport face issues regarding traffic congestion.
