By November, Tiruvottiyur and Manali residents will be able to use the road overbridge at Maattu Mandhai.
The railways and highways department have expedited work to complete the Rs. 47 crore project which will replace level crossing 3.
Sources in the Highways Department said that the Southern Railway has set a deadline of October after which one more month of work would be required to connect both places.
The department has completed all the spans of the 13.2 metre-wide, 550 metre-long, two-way facility and has commenced work to fill earth inside the retaining walls of the approach from Manali.
Buildings on the Tiruvottiyur side that were located on land belonging to temples have been demolished making way for the approach for the ramp. The ROB was supposed to have been completed by October last year but was delayed due to the railways shifting its deadline and also, due to delays in land acquisition.
“The railway officials had said they will finish work by March this year but now they have pushed the deadline to October,” a source explained. A total of 1,640 sq.m. was required on the Manali side and 2,619 sq.m. on the Tiruvottiyur side.
There are two more railway gates in Tiruvottiyur that need to be closed and ROBs constructed. “We can only hope the departments concerned do not delay the project further,” said M.K.Ramanan, Village Street resident.
Even last month, the Communist party members had stuck posters stating that the project was delayed and that thousands of workers employed in companies on the Manali side were put to undue trouble. “If this project were in the heart of the city someone would have raised the issue. But we are in north Chennai,” pointed out R. Jayaraman, former Municipal chairman.
