CHENNAI: Construction of the Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Perungalathur junction on the Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, which had been progressing at snail’s pace owing to the lockdown, has finally gathered momentum.The junction is a major traffic bottleneck. Buses and trucks from Delta and Southern districts take 40-50 minutes to cross the stretch.
This has primarily been due to frequent closure of the railway level crossing gate at Perungalathur. Since motorists heading to Peerkankaranai and Perungalathur halt at the gate, traffic slows down on GST Road, leading to a pile ups.
Although an ROB was proposed in 2010, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) declined permission saying construction would disrupt vehicle movement. Following representations from locals, the State and Railways, NHAI granted an NOC in 2018. In November 2019, the foundation stone was laid for the bridge that was estimated to cost Rs 235 crore. As the work on the bridge reduced the width of the road, the median was removed, providing four lanes on GST Road.
Official sources said the ROB will have an elliptical shape over GST Road with six arms. Four arms would facilitate vehicular movement in both directions on GST Road between Tambaram and Guduvancheri. Each arm would allow unidirectional vehicular passage.
There would also be an 800-m arm connecting New Perungalathur on Sreenivasan Ragavan Street and another (750m) to link Tambaram Bypass road on Gandhi Road. Both these arms will have bi-directional vehicular traffic with four lanes.
The bridge will run for 1.2 km in the Tambaram-Guduvancheri stretch and 800 m in the opposite direction. “Girders and piers have been erected for five arms except for the approach ramp from Tambaram. Presently, work to build the deck (surface of bridge) is being carried out on the Guduvancheri-Tambaram stretch,” said a highways official, adding that the bridge will be ready by the end of 2022.