The Hindu : Bypass road widening progressing fast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 27, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Bypass road widening progressing fast

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, MARCH 26. Velachery bypass road, a crucial link to southern suburbs, is being widened, a project that will reduce travel time, improve road safety and contribute to the faster development of the area.

It is one of the two major projects crystallising at a good pace in the locality, which hogged headlines after getting flooded in the 2002 monsoon; the other being a stormwater drain running for kilometres from Velachery lake to the Pallikaranai marsh.

Popularly known as 100-feet road, the bypass from the junction of Velachery Main Road to Vijay Nagar now is seven metres wide — nearly 24-feet. However, on completion of the Rs. 4.8-crore project of the Highways department, the road will measure 35 metres in width, which corresponds to slightly over 116 feet, say officials of the department.

Work to expand the 1.98-kilometre stretch, which was a bumpy, dusty road until a few years ago, is going on at a "rapid pace." However, Velachery residents want the project to be completed ahead of the one-year schedule, ending January 2005.

The wait will be worth it, if the project details are any indication. Apart from the six-lanes — three each separated by a concrete median — a service road on either side is planned to accommodate slow-moving vehicles. "Bicycles and motor vehicles from the residential localities located on both sides of the bypass can enter the main lanes only through the few inlets," says an engineer at the site.

A slew of developmental works, linked to the road widening project, and involving precise coordination among various agencies, are lined up in the area. It includes a stormwater drain with a carrying capacity of 550 cubic feet per second. The Public Works department is carrying out the Rs. 6.3-crore drainage scheme for surplus water of the Velachery lake.

"The Highways department is yet to hand over land, measuring 840 metres, near the Velachery bus terminus.

Another patch of land of 200 metres is involved in litigation. Once we get the land, work will be completed in no time. The rest of the work is in final stages,'' says a senior official of the PWD.

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is also laying a 110-kv cable, a work that will get over by mid-April.

According to sources in the Board, the new cable line is part of the city network covering several areas, including Taramani, Velachery and K.K. Nagar, to meet future electricity demand and serve as an alternative supply line during power cuts.

Several other service providers are to be engaged in the road expansion project, including telephone companies and the TNEB, for moving the street light posts.

Lighting is one aspect that road users want to be improved, as many stretches on Velachery Main Road and near the Metrowater filling station on the Bypass are inadequately lit.

Apart from the water tankers, heavy vehicles transporting construction material for housing use the Bypass — Velachery is becoming one of the preferred destinations for builders.

Besides constructing a `retaining' wall to prevent flowing of lake water onto the road, the road project involves deepening the new stretches from one metre below the surface and then filling it up. Once the project moves ahead at a greater pace, it will require removal of encroachments and clearing the stretch of vehicles, including autorickshaws and hire lorries, that are parked on the road.

But for residents of western Velachery, the problem is closer home as the Chennai Corporation work to lay concrete roads in many localities have stopped midway.

The condition of several roads in MGR Nagar and Venakateswara Nagar, which serve as a link to Adambakkam, Nanganallur and Guindy from Velachery remains unchanged, months after a few patches in the localities were concretised.

The contractors are said to have decided against laying any more concrete roads in the wake of rising cement prices. Confirming this, officials of Chennai Corporation said the response to the tender for laying the stretches was poor. Bids were invited four times.

The civic body had funds for the roads and in the event of the same situation continuing, it would nominate contractors to complete the projects after the Lok Sabha election, said the officials.

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