The widening of the Taramani Link Road, which connects Velachery with Rajiv Gandhi Salai, into a six-lane facility has hit a roadblock.
With almost 10 months having passed since the expansion work began on July 2, 2009, by Roman Tarmat, the widening is proceeding at a slow pace, complain motorists, who are forced to negotiate the congested stretch.
A senior official of the Highways Department said that so far the road had been widened from two lanes into four lanes for a stretch of 2.5 km. By July 31 the entire stretch of 3.65 km would be fully widened into four lanes. He said the construction of a canal that would carry excess rain water, which is to come up on the south side of the road, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was the reason for the delay in taking up work on southern side.
Being an important link for vehicles from several areas including Velachery, Madipakkam, Guindy, Ullagaram and Puzhithivakkam, heavy traffic congestion, narrow width of the road and haphazard parking of vehicles in front of several commercial establishments caused severe hardship to the motorists.
H. Ananthan, a resident of Madipakkam, said that it took 20 to 30 minutes to cross the 3 km stretch from the Vijay Nagar bus terminus to S.R.P. Tools. He said: “Now that the widening work is in progress, vehicles are forced to move at a slower pace and it takes more than 30 minutes to reach Rajiv Gandhi Salai.”
Even before the widening of the road has been completed, the department has started construction of a median blocking one side of the road adding to the woes of motorists. This has resulted in road-users facing severe hardship during rush hours in the already congested road.
T. Anantharajan, traffic expert, citing the changing commercial profile of the road due to this project, wanted to know what kind of facilities would be created for parking. He said: “If indiscriminate on-road parking is allowed, it would slow down vehicles and make the expansion a futile exercise. Therefore parking management along this road should be considered and properly addressed.”
Giving details about the features of the project which is being executed at a cost of Rs.23.45 crore, the Highways official said taking into consideration the heavy bus traffic bound for the IT corridor, it has been proposed to replace bus stops with bus bays to maintain free flow of traffic.
A dedicated cycle track and storm water drains are the other features of the World Bank-aided project, which is expected to be completed by January 2011.
