Construction of the road overbridge across the railway level-crossing on the Oyamari road in the city, which had come to a halt over the past few months, is set to resume soon.
The work is expected to resume in about a couple of months as the value of the land and buildings that are to be acquired for the project has been fixed, paving the way for the disbursement of the compensation to families who are to be displaced. About 75 to 100 families of low income group living in huts and tiled houses at Odathurai, would be displaced on account of the land acquisition.
The project came to a halt pending the acquisition of about 5,600 square metres of patta lands on the city side. Highways department had completed a major portion of the construction work on the other side towards the Chennai Bypass Road.
The bridge sanctioned at a cost of Rs.28.50 crore will connect Chinthamani area of the city with the Chennai Bypass Road. It was intended to provide quick and easy accessibility to the four-lane Tiruchi-Chennai highway from the city. The project, scheduled to be completed by March this year, has suffered a time over-run with construction being halted midway.
According to sources, the land acquisition process is expected to be completed within the next couple of months. After the acquisition was completed, government agencies would have to take up the work on shifting of utilities. Once the site was ready, the remaining work would be completed in about eight months, the sources added.
Highways department has also been forced to hold up the commencement of work on widening the existing bridge across the railway crossing near Periyar Nagar on the Thiruvanaikovil Trunk Road, a project sanctioned over a year ago. Only on completion of Oyamari roadbridge that traffic could be diverted to facilitate the construction work on the Thiruvanaikovil Trunk Road.