The popular demand for an underpass across the Tiruchi-Chennai Bypass Road at G.Corner in the city came up for discussion at a meeting of senior officials of the Railways and the National Highways Authority of India here on Thursday.
Officials of the two agencies are scheduled to hold another round of talks at the zonal level in Chennai on April 30 to arrive at a decision on the issue.
Ever since the four-laning of the bypass road, which forms part of the Tiruchi-Chennai National Highway, residents of Golden Rock, there have been persistently demanding construction of an underpass to restore the right of way for residents in Golden Rock and employees of the Southern Railway Central Workshop on the Railway Colony campus.
The four-laning has effectively denied them direct access to Golden Rock as vehicles proceeding from TVS Tollgate cannot enter Golden Rock from the by-pass and they have to take a detour of about two kilometres to go up to Senthaneerpuram, crossing over the new by-pass bridge, to take a u-turn and return to enter the Golden Rock main road from the left. Alternatively, they would have to go via the Pudukottai Highway to join the Ponmalaipatti Road, which makes for a detour of more than four to five km.
The two-way service lane, which now serves as the access route for the Golden Rock area from the TVS Tollgate Junction, is too narrow and dangerous to negotiate, residents complain.
Though the issue had been raised in different fora, the Railways and the NHAI have been unable to find a common ground. While the Railways had offered to provide the land free of cost, it was not agreeable to meet the cost of the subway as demanded by the NHAI as suggested at a previous meeting several months back.
On Thursday, senior officials of the NHAI and Railways held a meeting and also conducted an inspection of the spot. According to sources privy to the discussion, the NHAI officials had reportedly said that construction of an underpass was not feasible now that the four-laning project has been completed. However, various alternative options to ease the traffic congestion at the junction were discussed, the sources said.
With the Divisional Railway Manager P.V.Vaidialingam keenly pursuing the matter, another high-level meeting is to be held on April 30 to arrive at a decision on the issue.
