The State government has sanctioned Rs. 260 crore towards land acquisition for the widening of the second phase of Old Mamallapuram Road. Phase II of OMR, which is currently a four-lane stretch with a median, will be widened into six lanes.
This 26.8 km stretch, under the charge of the State Highways Department, will run from Siruseri to Poonjeri, where it will join the East Coast Road. Two new by-passes have been planned to avoid areas that are urbanised and have too many buildings. The road will run through 13 revenue villages and nearly 200 acres of land are required to widen it. One by-pass, running to a length of 4.67 km, will come up in Padur and reach Thaiyyur-B village, by-passing Kelambakkam. Similarly, the other by-pass of 5.75 km will take off in Kalavakkam and join Vengaleri. It will by-pass Thiruporur and Thandalam.
Widening the road to six lanes and strengthening it is imperative, as a lot of development is taking place beyond Siruseri, which has a SIPCOT park. A large number of residential complexes and several colleges too have come up to Thiruporur, which also witnesses a high volume of traffic.
Phase I not complete
Though tolling operations on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (the stretch that runs from Madhya Kailash to Siruseri) began in December 2008, work on the road is yet to be completed. Residents complain that pedestrians are forced to walk on the road as the pavements are unfinished in many places. G. Sathish, a resident of Semmancheri said: “They collect toll fees but what kind of service are they providing? Water stagnates on the road when it rains, and streets leading from the road also get flooded. The road smacks of lack of planning. There is no traffic management. Too many accidents happen.”
According to sources in the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company, which manages Rajiv Gandhi Salai, work on the footpaths and service lanes are expected to be completed by the end of September.
Keywords: OMR development, traffic management
It would be better if they spend this money to clear the mess around the major junctions in the PhaseI. if it takes 1 hr to travel from end to end on OMR then actually 40 minutes are spent waiting on toll gates and junctions. Lets make the PhaseI usable before they move on to PhaseII. Atleast for PhaseII will they plan the junctions so that they do not become a mess in another 2 years. Will these guys learn from thier mistakes?
Yes couldn't agree more. Metro is the need of the hour on this OMR
stretch. It saves lot of fuel by reducing individual cars on the road.
Also number of buses can be reduced further to make up for Metro.
Hello TN govt, pls consider this aspect.
Need Metro track from Thiruvanmiyur till Mahabalipuram it can be extended till Pondicherry. So that people can commute easily from pondicherry to OMR rather from Ambattur to OMR. This track should be in the Buckincam canal which will serve both ECR as well as OMR. Metro trains will be chepaer mode for transport during weekdays by all OMR Companies. Weekend it's going to Tourist crowd till Mahabalipuram. This is the ideal time to construct until Kelampakkam (as proactive manner) rather reactive manner (our Metro construction thru city is best example). Siruseri alone about 1 lakh people going to work in another 1 or 2 years. Company buses or not a solution. Metro train is the only solution. Each high raised building will hold 2000 seats if we counts until Keelampakkam. It will be around another 50 so another 1 lakh. Sholinganallur SEZ alone going to build another 1 lakh seats. So almost 4 to 5 lakh people going to work in this corrider (phase 1) in few years. It's best time to ACT.
what u need is a train/metro connection. Already the road is clogged.It is better to build the metro now rather than what we is bein done now in metro phase 1
Build an elevated light rail track in the middle of the OMR right upto
Thayur aligned with existing MRTS say from Taramani, run shuttle trains
24X7 at 15 minutes intervals, create huge ground level car / 2-wheeler
parking sites in the vicinity of OMR at every km all along. This will
encourage mass usage of the rail network for the future, reduce
congestion on the road, reduce pollution & petrol consumption and so
on.This will also create a boom in housing all along the interior on
either side of the OMR.
It is good to hear all the developments that are coming up. But, be it the expansion work on Old Mahabalipuram Road(OMR), the Metro Rail construction or any other new projects, thought could have been placed on improving the existing infrastructure associated with that area before attempting to proceed on newer ones. Another disturbing aspect is the laying of service lanes on either side of the OMR. We still do not know what purpose these lanes serve. First, the existing footpath for pedestrians is almost gone. Second, the so-called service lanes are used by all types of vehicles, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, autos, cars, vans, company buses, etc. The pedestrians are the most troubled lot. If they cannot walk safely on the edge of the road, they cannot do so even on the service lanes. These service lanes only help the drivers to reach their destination easily by travelling on the wrong side and in the process it adds to the pedestrians' woes.
First finish the first phase. It is day light robbery - collecting toll for such a pathetic road. and this toll has already been hiked twice.
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