The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A solution that adds to the problem

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A solution that adds to the problem

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI, OCT. 5. Residents of East Tambaram are incensed over the alleged "short-sightedness" of various government agencies in designing the road overbridge (ROB) to replace the existing level-crossing at Sanatorium.

Their grievance is that the bridge will only add to the congestion in the area. The bridge connects Grand Southern Trunk Road and Chitlapakkam Second Main Road. There is no provision for vehicles to reach Bharatha Matha Street that runs through East Tambaram, connecting Velachery Main Road with Sanatorium, locals say.

According to the ROB plan, motorists from Bharatha Matha Street have to go to Chitlapakkam Second Main Road, take a round-about and climb the bridge to reach GST Road. Residents and elected representatives of the Tambaram Municipality say this will not ease congestion, but instead add to the current problems.

"Most of the traffic flow is from Bharatha Matha Street. There is no reason why the bridge should end up on the Chitlapakkam side," said D.S. Madhavan, honorary president of The Twelfth Ward (Tambaram Municipality) Residents Welfare Association. V.R. Sivaraman, Bharatiya Janata Party councillor of ward 16, said there were about nine town panchayats and more than 21 village panchayats around Tambaram. Several thousand people, including school and college students and employees at the Madras Export Processing Zone, use Bharatha Matha Street to reach the level-crossing.

Once the bridge is completed, the level-crossing will be closed, cutting off access to GST Road from Bharatha Matha Street.

Mr. Sivaraman recalled that when electric train services between Beach and Tambaram were introduced 60 years ago, the level-crossing on Bharatha Matha Street was the only access to the Sanatorium station; Chitlapakkam and other areas sprung up much later. The solution, he said, was to provide a road branching off from the bridge towards East Tambaram.

Official version

However, officers of the State Highways Department said studies revealed that traffic flow was greater from Chitlapakkam. It was not possible to alter the design of the bridge for which work had already begun, officials said. Also, constructing a rotary with a road branching off towards East Tambaram was not possible. Sufficient road widening work would be carried out to ensure that motorists from East Tambaram had easy access to the bridge. Work on the bridge, costing Rs. 4.78 crores, started in January, is likely to be completed by May next year.

Residents and elected representatives cutting across party affiliations said they would resort to protests to highlight their grievance.

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