Work on the elevated corridor along the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH 44) near Ambur town in Tirupattur is progressing at a fast pace.
Around 40% of the total work has been completed. Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which executes the project along with L&T, said the stretch would be converted into six lanes to reduce the total travel time on the route. The entire work is expected to be completed by May 2024. “We are expediting the work as the stretch has witnessed an increase in the flow of traffic in the recent months. Along with carriageway work, construction of storm water drains is also being taken up,” G. Athipathi, Project Director, NHAI (Tirupattur), told The Hindu.
Originally sanctioned in 2011, the elevated corridor is being built at a cost of ₹135 crore between the Rajiv Gandhi statue and ORR Theatre in Ambur town. The location is one of the most accident-prone spots in the district owing to congested neighbourhoods and public utilities like the Ambur bus terminus, a government hospital and a market being in the vicinity.
The new corridor will be 1,450-metre long and 11-metre wide (main carriageway) with a median. Service roads, 8-metre wide, will be built to facilitate movement of two-wheelers, autorickshaws and cars. Storm water drains, high mast lamps, LED street lights, reflectors and warning sign boards are among the other features that will come up on the corridor. More than 75,000 vehicles, mainly trucks and container lorries, use the stretch to reach Chennai or Bengaluru every day.
NHAI officials said at present, most of the traffic were being diverted on the narrow service lanes along the highway for the corridor work. Personnel had been deployed and barricades were in place along the route to ensure smooth flow of traffic.
