CHENNAI: The Velachery Vijayanagar bus stand is gasping for space after a portion of it has been demolished by the state highways department to construct a double-decker bridge.The terminus, which has been squeezed, suffered a blow when Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) also dropped a proposal to shift it to Velachery MRTS railway station owing to administrative constraints.
Aiming to reduce traffic congestion during peak hours on the Tambaram- Velachery main road and Velachery - Taramani link road, in 2013 the state highways department proposed to build two bridges at Vijayanagar junction connecting Taramani link road and Velachery bypass road and Velachery - Tambaram road at a cost of Rs 90 crore.
A 640 metre-long two-lane flyover was to connect Velachery Bypass Road (100 feet road) with Velachery - Tambaram main road near Velachery MRTS station and the second flyover was to link Taramani link road with Velachery Bypass road.After a delay of three years, construction work for the first bridge was started in 2015 and the second bridge in 2016.
To erect pillars for the bridge that connects Taramani link road with Velachery bypass road, the state highways department demolished a portion of roof of Vijayanagar bus terminus a week ago. A pillar also was erected at the entrance of bus terminus.Since then, buses from Velachery bypass road and Tambaram - Velachery road enter the bus stand negotiating a narrow road, thus increasing traffic snarls during office hours. Bus commuters are also forced to stand in the scorching sun.
The bus terminus connects most areas of Southern Chennai, including Tambaram, Medavakkam, Ponmar, Kelambakkam, Madipakkam, Pallikaranai, Kilkattalai and Chromepet, Sholiganallur and Perungudi. It handles about 50,000 commuters a day.A section of bus commuters fears that if the bus terminus continues to function without adequate space, it will worsen vehicular movement.
They say buses from Tambaram and Medavakkam have smooth passage up to Pallikaranai and later they get caught up in traffic jam from MRTS station to Vijayanagar bus stand. During office hours, buses get piled up on Taramani link road, Velachery bypass road and Tambaram road up to two to three km.
“It takes nearly 45 minutes to an hour to reach the terminus from Pallikaranai. MTC should shift a few buses to nearby places to reduce traffic congestion,” said S Shanmugam, a retired school teacher and resident of Erikkarai street, Velachery.
Another commuter of Velachery, K Krishnamurthy, a banker, said about 20 MTC buses are getting parked in Velachery - Taramani link road and bypass roads throughout the day occupying the congested roads.
“Buses are already choking vehicular movement. The bridges will ease traffic congestion only if buses are taken off the roads,” he added.
Earlier, MTC had plans to shift the bus terminus to Velachery MRTS station and it was dropped later owing to issues pertaining to land acquisition and other administrative constraints.“As of now, the construction works are being done without any disruption to bus operations. The bus terminus will continue to function in the same location and buses parked on Taramani link and Velachery main road,” said an official.A senior official of state highways department said 50 percent of the works have been completed for the second flyover and plans are on to open it for traffic by the middle of this year.