The Rs.78.8-crore road overbridge to replace the railway level crossing near Tambaram railway station at the intersection of the Velachery Main Road, Grand Southern Trunk Road and Mudichur Road will be opened for traffic this month-end.
However, only a portion of the facility would be opened. The bridge has six ramps, four on GST Road (two each towards Tambaram and Chengalpattu) and one each on Mudichur Road and Velachery Main Road. The ramps on Velachery Main Road and Mudichur Road have been completed.
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As traffic problems have been mounting in West Tambaram due to diversion, the State Highways Department has decided to throw open traffic towards Mudichur. Vehicles from both Tambaram and Chengalpattu sides would be allowed to take the ramps and land on Mudichur Road and vice-versa.
Work is on in full swing to lay service lanes on Mudichur Road and GST Road. Remaining work on Velachery Main Road, including construction of a few pillars and installing a slab deck would be completed soon, State Highways Minister Vellakoil Saminathan told reporters after a recent inspection. Labour Welfare Minister T. M. Anbarasan and Tambaram MLA S. R. Raja were also present.
Proposals to replace the level-crossing with a bridge were made more than a decade ago but it was not until the gauge conversion scheme of 1998-99 that the project was sanctioned.
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The original estimate for the project was Rs.34 crore but revised estimates after delays has hiked it to Rs.78.8 crore, of which Rs.35 crore was spent on land acquisition and the rest for civil works. In addition, the Southern Railway is spending about Rs.5 crore on its share of the work.
Southern Railway commenced its portion of the work as early as November 2005, while the State Highways Department formally began work after a ground breaking ceremony in May 2007. It was scheduled for completion in 2009.
D. Kamaraj, Tambaram Municipal Vice-Chairman, said they would study the traffic flow once it was partly opened for traffic and take appropriate improvement and widening works on Mudichur Road and also on Gandhi Road, where traffic towards Kancheepuram has been diverted for several months now.