After a three-year delay, road widening work of the Ayanavaram Road and Raji Street that connects Medavakkam Tank Road and New Avadi Road may finally begin by January, Chennai Corporation officials said.
Once this road is widened, it will not only ease traffic congestion on this link road, but will also enable traffic flow in four lanes. To facilitate this, a traffic signal was also placed at the junction of Ayanavaram Road and Medavakkam Tank Road a few months ago.
“As planned earlier, we may commence work in January once the monsoon ends. Sometime ago, we demolished and rebuilt the old compound wall of the Institute of Mental Health and of the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board as it had been damaged severely during the monsoon,” the official said.
A few buses may be rerouted once the road-widening process is complete, but it is too early to say which buses may take a new route, the official added.
The compound wall that was rebuilt has been shifted from its earlier spot by five metres, making more room for the width of the road, which has expanded to about 15 metres now.
However, the Corporation fenced in the extended section of the road, and residents say this has been causing them a severe inconvenience.
K. Ramadoss, a resident of the area said, “The congestion on the road has become worse now, as many autorickshaws and cars park just along the fence on the outside, making the space for road-users even narrower. After the compound wall was shifted, though the expanded five-metre stretch was not usable, at least vehicles were parked there and the congestion problem had eased a little. But with the fence now, it is worse.”
A fleet of autorickshaws just outside the fence restricts movement of vehicles especially during peak hours, another resident said.
Corporation officials however said they had fenced that section in as people had been dumping garbage there and parking their vehicles.
