Former Speaker Chellapandian's statue at Vannerpet here was removed on Tuesday to facilitate the early completion of the overbridge being constructed at this busy junction at the cost of over Rs. 16 crore.
Since vehicular traffic at Chellapandian traffic island at Vannarpet here is very high at any given time, the State Government sanctioned the construction of an overbridge at this junction at a cost of over Rs. 16 crore following a representation from Mayor A.L. Subramanian.
Though the number of vehicles passing through this point from east to west or vice-versa is very high, it was decided to construct the overbridge in the north-south direction since any move to build the concrete structure in east-west direction might have triggered a series of litigation against land acquisition. Even after construction of the overbridge reached the final stage, the statue, which was unveiled on April 20, 1995, was not removed to facilitate the ongoing construction.
Following the sustained efforts made by Collector M. Jayaraman, experts from the Department of Highways and Archaeology inspected the statue and checked its strength and the pedestal on which the life-size statue is standing.
Based on the report submitted by the team, it was decided to remove the statue and keep it safely in the Government Museum near the District Police Office till the construction is over. Subsequently, work on removing the statue commenced.
“Once construction of the overbridge is completed, the statue will be reinstalled there,” said official sources here.
