Travelling through the bustling hubs of south Chennai has become a nightmarish experience for residents, due to slow progress of various infrastructure projects on arterial roads.
The incomplete projects, initiated three years ago, have narrowed road space and aggravated chaos on the already congested roads. Kalaignar Karunanidhi Salai and Taramani Link Road present classic examples of frequent traffic pile-ups that often result in harrowing experiences for motorists.
An important link between Rajiv Gandhi Salai and East Coast Road, Kalaignar Karunanidhi Salai suddenly shrinks to a two-lane facility owing to incomplete bridge work across South Buckingham canal.
While the existing bridge is designed to carry traffic from Rajiv Gandhi Salai to East Coast Road, the facility under construction was proposed to carry traffic from ECR to Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
B. Subramanian of Thiruvidandhai, who frequents the road, says four-lane traffic on the road is reduced to the two-lane bridge, as the other facility is yet to be opened for traffic. It takes an additional 20 minutes to cross the road due to frequent gridlocks, he adds.
In his post on the Friends of Chennai website, The Hindu Harsha Koda, a resident of Sholinganallur, says police check-posts near the unfinished bridge further aggravate traffic bottlenecks. The bridge is often used as a film shooting spot and frequented by inebriated youngsters, he points out.
Similarly, several residents have started avoiding Taramani Link Road, Velachery, as a stretch has remained unusable for the last five years due to slow progress of an expansion project.
Akash Ramkumar, of Madipakkam, complains that the road widening-project and work on building a flood water channel taken up on a four-km stretch has been dragging for years. Many motorists take a detour via Pallavaram Thorapakkam Radial Road to avoid the crawling traffic on this stretch.
Saikarthick Raghupathy of Ayodhya Colony, Velachery, says residents are often exposed to risk of accidents as the road lacks signage warning about medians or work in progress.
Another project, which has been on the backburner for three years, is the construction of a bridge to connect Anakaputhur municipality and Tharapakkam across the Adyar river. The work is awaiting permission from the defence ministry on land required for the project.
Meanwhile, officials state the Water Resources Department has recently resumed work on the bridge on Kalaignar Karunanidhi Salai across the canal and plans to open the facility for traffic in a month. Work on building the channel along Taramani Link Road is also expected to be completed in three months.
