The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Elevated bridge across Adambakkam lake vital for IRR project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 08, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Elevated bridge across Adambakkam lake vital for IRR project

K. Manikandan

Residents and civic groups want the work to be speeded up and the project completed on time

—PHOTO: K.MANIKANDAN

SLOW PACE: A view of the area near the proposed bridge.

TAMBARAM: Residents and civic groups in Adambakkam are hoping that the State government will speed up the construction of an elevated bridge across the Adambakkam Lake.

Inner Ring Road (IRR) — a 46-km-long road to connect Tiruvanmiyur in South Chennai and Manali in the North – has been completed, but for the 5-km stretch of the southern sector between St. Thomas Mount and Velachery.

Work started

In February last year, the ground-breaking ceremony for this portion of southern sector was held, and one year later, the project has not moved too far.

During the ground-breaking function, officials said civil works alone were estimated to cost Rs. 33 crore, while nearly twice that sum was allotted for land acquisition. The civil works include four-lane highways running parallel to the extended branch of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) between Velachery and St. Thomas Mount and the elevated bridge across the lake.

Design not finalised

Engineers of the State Highways Department (Projects) told The Hindu that the design for the bridge was yet to be finalised as the nod from Southern Railway was also necessary. They said they hoped that once the design was finalised, tenders for the bridge would be floated.

Civic groups in Thillaiganga Nagar and Adambakkam told The Hindu that preliminary works on laying the highways and approach roads leading to the proposed bridge’s ramps were already on. Pointing out that Pallavararam-Thoraipakkam Radial Road had miserably failed owing to the delay in completion of the bridge to link it with Grand Southern Trunk Road, residents said the southern sector, too, would serve no purpose if the elevated bridge across Adambakkam lake was not completed.

Residents also feared that the stormwater drains being constructed as part of the project would end up draining rainwater in their localities and called for an urgent and thorough review of the project’s status.

IRR project

Conceived in the 1970s, the objective of the IRR was to ease congestion and improve connectivity. Road works between Kathipara and Vadapalani, Koyambedu and subsequently till Manali and also between Tiruvanmiyur and Velachery were completed in various phases, but this 5-km stretch between St. Thomas Mount and Velachery was ignored.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu