CHENNAI: Traffic woes at Velachery may not see their end anytime soon as Highways officials say that the twin flyover project at Vijayanagar-Velachery Junction will take another year for completion.
Around 15 months ago, the Metro division of the State Highways department initiated the project in order to reduce traffic congestion at the Vijayanagar and Velachery Junction.
According to officials, construction work was halted around four months ago, allegedly because a private ‘encroacher’ moved court claiming that he was not paid compensation for the land acquired as part of the project. “Following this, a stay order has been passed,” he said. However, another official said that it was halted due to a fund crunch.
Meanwhile, commuters continue having a tough time manoeuvring the stretch. “Every day I leave the house two hours early to reach my office at the Tidel Park” said C Kannan, a resident of Selvam Nagar, who added that the traffic congestion worsened during rain with vehicles using smaller lanes to get around the bridge construction work.
Velachery is an important hub connecting the bustling IT corridor on OMR, GST Road and the central business districts. Especially during rush hours in the morning and the evening, vehicles take more than an hour to get past the stretch, claim commuters.
Speaking to Express, one of the Highway department sources said that the work would be over by December 2018 and the flyover ready for use in January, 2019.
The department was allocated `110 crore more for land acquisition and the work started after the soil test proved the land worthy of constructing a bridge.
Another official of the Highways department alleged that the work was delayed due to the internal politics going on within the departments which made the work sluggish.