Swami Sivananda Salai is at the centre of an exercise to promote an annual motor-racing extravaganza.
According to a Greater Chennai Corporation official, Swami Sivananda Salai would continue to function as a road for regular vehicular traffic, except for two days in a year, when a Formula 4 racing event would come to these parts. Towards this end, Swami Sivananda Salai is undergoing striking modifications.
Expected to support motor sports, Swami Sivananda Salai is being redesigned by Greater Chennai Corporation, on November 11, 2021. | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
Swami Sivananda Salai would figure in a 3.7-km race track and this route includes snatches of neighbouring roads, notably Flagstaff Road and a part of Anna Salai (the section linking Flagstaff Road and Swami Sivananda Salai).
From what could be gathered from the GCC official’s account of the work at hand, Flagstaff Road will undergo the barest of bare modifications, just minor tweaks around the corners to blunt the edge.
The GCC official spells out the route: “Starting from the inside of Island Grounds, the racing vehicles would go to Flagstaff Road, and then into Anna Salai all the way up to Swami Sivananda Salai, roar down Swami Sivananda Salai, hit Napier Bridge and complete the lap by getting right back into Island Grounds.
The work is expected to be completed in the first week of December, the GCC official reveals.
Work under way
Pedestals for poles to bear streetlights are being constructed by the roadside on a section of Swami Sivananda Salai. Two-arm streetlamp poles already rear up from the median. According to those close to the developments, the median on this section is going to be flattened and made part of the road. Signs of the planned action are already visible. The poles in the median would be dismantled. On this section of Swami Sivananda Salai — the existing U-turn (near Adams Road) to the point where Sivananda Salai meets Kamarajar Salai) — there is a tract or two that can be called a bottleneck in relative terms.
On another section of Swami Sivananda Salai, the streetlight poles in the median are not facing the prospect of being dismantled (probably only for now), but the pavements are. In fact, quite a length of the pavement has been bulldozed out of the way and the exercise is clearly aimed at giving vehicles more leg space.
