Tenders for preparing detailed project reports (DPR) for seven flyovers in and around the city announced by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the State Assembly in June this year are expected to be awarded to consultants in a month.
Consultant firms evinced interest in the projects in the second call for tenders and now, the bids are under process, explained sources in the Highways Department.
The detailed project reports are to be completed within six and to nine months during which every detail of the flyovers would be studied.
This will include even the necessity of a flyover at a particular junction, the number of vehicles taking each direction, the design of the facility, how much land would have to be acquired and the tentative cost of the construction, sources said.
“Flyovers come up after a lot of thought and at points where there is a long-felt need. Our engineers too study the locations before it is taken to the government. After the DPR is submitted, it would be sent to a technical audit committee that would study it in detail and then send it to the government for allocation of funds,” an official explained.
Tenders were called for a grade separator at Madipakkam on Tambaram-Velachery Road; a four-lane grade separator at the junction of NH 205 (Chennai -Tiruthani-Tirupathi Road) and Vanagaram-Ambattur Road; a grade separator at the intersection of Pallavaram-Kundrathur Road and CKS Road at Kundrathur; a grade separator at Korattur on NH 205; the extension of the existing Vadapalani grade separator up to Ashok Pillar junction on Jawaharlal Nehru Road; a grade separator on Maraimalai Adigal Bridge–Irumbuliyur Road at the intersection of Madambakkam Road; and a multi-level grade separator on Mount Poonamallee Avadi Road from MIOT Hospital to Mugalivakkam via Ramapuram.
Worsening situation
The extension of the Vadapalani flyover, covering a distance of 1.7 km, was estimated to cost ₹380 crore.
“Many former highways engineers and residents have demanding that the Vadapalani flyover be extended to beyond the Lakshman Sruthi junction. But no one paid heed at the time of construction. The situation at the junction has only worsened,” said a former engineer.
S. Kumuda, a resident of Velachery, who uses the Velachery-Tambaram Road daily, said the particular junction chosen for a flyover on the road seemed very inconvenient.
“One flyover ends a few hundred metres ahead and just after the junction, a railway bridge takes off. Already, the road feels like a roller-coaster. The government should think of some other solution,” she said.
