CHENNAI: The much delayed six-lane stretch of East Coast Road from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai is likely to have dual-level grade separators and would cost the exchequer Rs 260 crore, according to a Detailed Project Report. The six-lane widening of East Coast Road from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai village in Injambakkam, a distance of 11.4 km, will result in the acquisition of 4,256 square metre of land which would cost the exchequer Rs 20 crore, the report stated.
Initially, the grade separator of 1590 metre was proposed, leaving out the RTO junction near Akkarai but after the detailed feasibility report, the bridge was extended to 2.15km, which is expected to ease away the traffic in the busy stretch. As per the traffic survey done in the Akkarai Junction, it was noticed that 4947 passenger car units pass there per hour.
Considering the six-laning construction and exponentially growing traffic volume, the peak hour traffic is expected to reach 10,000 passenger car units (PCU) per hour in another five years. The consultants believe that the rate of traffic growth will be greater than the standard five per cent growth. As a result, the Grade Separator is proposed.
The study points out that the maximum traffic is between the stretch from Thiruvanmiyur to Sholinganallur (1,081PCUs per hour) and Sholingannalur to Thiruvanmiyur (followed by 1,011PCUs per hour) and Puducherry to Thiruvanmiyur (965PCUs per hour).It is learnt that currently, land acquisition is in process for the project, which involves six villages, namely, Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam, Palavakam, Neelankarai, Injambakkam and Sholinganallur. The six-laning will be done after land acquisition is completed.
Sources said that three options were considered for the grade separator.
Option one includes a four-lane Grade Separator to cater to the traffic between Thiruvanmiyur and Puducherry while the second option considered a two-lane Grade Separator to cater to the traffic from Thiruvanmiyur to Sholinganalur.
The third option, which is now being finalized, was having two-lane grade separators each, from Thiruvanmiyur to Sholinganalur in level-1 and from Sholinganalur to Puducherry in level - 2.Under this, the length of flyover at level-1 will be 666 metres and 1500 metres in level-2. The total width of the carriageway in both the levels will be 7.5 metre. Similarly, slip roads of 7.5m in Thiruvanmiyur - Puducherry direction and 11 metre on Puducherry -Thiruvanmiyur direction, are proposed.
The third option is considered to be costlier when taking into account the cost of civil works being Rs 173.28 crore, land acquisition cost being Rs 19.95 crore and utility shifting estimated to be around Rs 45.51 crore. The overall cost of the project is Rs 260.45 crore when compared with the first option which would cost the exchequer Rs 107.46 crore and the second option which runs into around Rs 73.83 crore.
Highways department sources claim that the consultant has pitched for the third option considering the techno-economical consideration as well as sustainability to present and future traffic. Sources said the dual level grade separator gives a long-term solution with zero conflict and though the cost is higher, it will be economical considering the future growth.