The Highways Department has appointed a consultant to prepare a detailed project report to construct a grade separator at the junction of Lattice Bridge Road and East Coast Road in Thiruvanmiyur.
The firm, EGC India Ltd., will take six months to study the traffic pattern in the junction and give at least four designs. The department issued the work order to the consultant recently. It was in February that the department had called for consultants for the project. Apart from a detailed traffic study in the area, the consultant would also look at provisions for pedestrians and provide designs for junction improvement and service roads.
Sources in the Highways Department said that an idea was to construct two two-lane flyovers. One would take off from West Avenue near the Tidel Park junction and go up to Kottivakkam. “It would run along the median and go above the Valmiki Temple which is near the Thiruvanmiyur bus depot. The other flyover from the Lattice Bridge side crossing the traffic intersection would come at a level lower than the one proposed on ECR. It would be a sort of a double-decker design,” a source in the Highways Department explained.
One design should also look at the possibility of extending the flyover beyond Kottivakkam, if need be. “The ramp alone could be removed the flyover extended. The study of traffic patterns in the area and the number of vehicles going into residential areas and beyond Akkarai will decide on the length of the flyover,” the official said.
The Chennai Corporation had given up a proposal to construct a flyover-cum-subway in the junction as over 1.2 lakh sq ft of land was required for the project. Three years ago, land acquisition alone was estimated to cost Rs.93 crore and the total project cost was pegged at Rs.150 crore. The crucial junction at Thiruvanmiyur has traffic proceeding from and to ECR and Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
