The Highways Department has transplanted 75 trees from Sardar Patel Road and inside CLRI premises to make way for the two-lane unidirectional flyover at Madhya Kailash junction.
“The trees that had a girth of less than one metre each had been moved with the help of an expert with the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company. The trees are doing well now and will be taken care of for at least a year,” said a source.
The department had to, however, cut down 150 trees that were very old and were too large to survive. In their place, 1,500 saplings are to be planted on the Pallavaram–Thoraipakkam Radial Road at a cost of ₹30 lakh. Members of the public had been complaining that the once extremely green stretch with large trees has become devoid of the canopy due to the flyover. “It is difficult to wait at the signal due to lack of trees,” said G. Ramakrishnan, a two-wheeler rider.
“The roots of trees that are over 50 years cannot be cut and removed. Younger trees have a better chance of survival since at least half the roots can be salvaged. When we transplant, we trim the branches and it is difficult to ensure that it survives as its root system is damaged,” said Ramkumar, who has transplanted over 2,000 trees so far.
The road at the junction has to be widened to accommodate the flyover and service lanes. For this, the department needed land from the Regional Labour Institute, the CLRI and other Central government institutions. However, try as much as it could, this remained impossible. A total of 84 acres of land had been given by the State government to the Centre free of cost in the late 1940s and using a provision in the Land Acquisition Act whereby land which was not being used could be taken for public use, the required space was taken over for the construction.
A retired Highways engineer recalled that the Greater Chennai Corporation could not acquire lands for the construction of the flyover at IIT Madras. “That is why there is not much space for pedestrians on that road,” he added.
The flyover would be 640 metres long and be L-shaped, allowing vehicles proceeding to Rajiv Gandhi Salai to take a right turn without waiting for the signal. Around 60% of the vehicular traffic at that junction turn into the IT corridor. A total of ₹46 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of the flyover that will take off 300 metres from the existing flyover at IIT Madras.
