After five years of delay, the work on the bridge on Kalaignar Karunanidhi Road, which links East Coast Road (ECR) with Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) at Sholinganallur, is complete.
The bridge, constructed across South Buckingham Canal, is a Rs. 78 crore project of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Scheme. The work was carried out by the Water Resource Department of the Public Works Department. The bridge, originally 40 metres long and eight metres wide, has now been made100 metres long and 19 metreswide. The footpath on either side of the stretch is two metres wide. The bridge will be maintained by the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC). “As the link road has been widened, reflectors need to be laid for better illumination,” said a TNRDC official. The stretch is relatively busy as numerous IT companies function on OMR. The stretch also has engineering colleges. The ‘weekend crowd’ headed for ECR also takes this stretch, making it busier. “As it is wide, the bridge will be of great help. At present, two-way traffic is allowed only on the ECR direction of the bridge resulting in traffic chaos. With poor illumination near the bridge and spillover of sand from the construction site onto the road, accidents are reported frequently,” says G. Satish, a long-time resident of Sholinganallur. According to the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company, the bridge would be opened to traffic soon.
