KRISHNAGIRI: Four of the bearings in the GRT flyover will be replaced, and it has been confirmed that there is no structural damage, and the issue will be rectified within a month, said Regional Officer NHAI Virendar Sambyal at Hosur on Sunday.
The bearing damage in the flyover near the Hosur bus stand led to a lateral shift, affecting traffic for more than half a day in the district from Saturday afternoon. On the six-lane flyover, vehicles heading to Bengaluru from Krishnagiri were asked not to use the three lanes on one side. However, traffic was not affected in the other three lanes, where vehicles from Bengaluru were heading to Krishnagiri.
The NHAI team, led by Virendar Sambyal and Krishnagiri NHAI Project Director Ramesh, among others, accompanied Krishnagiri Collector C. Dinesh Kumar and SP P Thangadurai to inspect the damage on Sunday morning.
Virendar told reporters that, "The flyover was constructed in 2002, but there is no structural damage. For over two decades, the sudden braking of multi-axle vehicles may have led to the damage of bearings. They will be replaced, and the stretch will be checked for the next 48 hours.
If no major issues are found, then light vehicles will be allowed on one side of the lane. In the three lanes on one side, light vehicles will be allowed on one lane for vehicles heading to Bengaluru, and the other two lanes will be used for vehicles from Bengaluru to Krishnagiri."
He further added that the permanent rectification of the flyover will take around one month to complete.
Collector Dinesh Kumar said, "The Krishnagiri district administration had discussed with the Dharmapuri district administration, following which vehicles from Salem heading to Bengaluru were asked to pass via Dharmapuri-Palacode-Rayakottai-Hosur ring road-Bengaluru. Similarly, vehicles from Krishnagiri were diverted to Shoolagiri-Uddanapalli-Hosur ring road-Bengaluru. Also, more police will be deployed to regulate the traffic."
Due to the traffic issue on Saturday night, people who went from Hosur to Krishnagiri were asked to return by diverting them to Shoolagiri-Uddanapalli-Kelamangalam-Hosur, which takes around three hours. The usual travel time between Krishnagiri to Hosur is around one hour.
D Karthikeyan, a private company employee from Hosur, who went to visit the annual mango exhibition with his family, returned after three hours of travel, he told TNIE.