CHENNAI: The city
corporation will study the possibility of building four new flyovers and
five pedestrian subways, mayor Saidai Duraisamy said, while presenting
the civic body’s budget for 2013-2014 on Monday. Feasibility studies
would be done to check the viability of the projects.

One
flyover is planned at the TTK Road-St Marys Road-Chamiers Road junction
near Hotel Park Sheraton to reduce congestion. Flyovers have also been
proposed at Arcot Road-Kaliamman Koil Street junction near Koyambedu, at
Kodambakkam High Road-Thirumalai Pillai Road-Valluvar Kottam High Road
junction in Nungambakkam, and at Madhya Kailash junction in Adyar.

Pedestrian subways have been proposed under N S K Salai near Meenakshi
Engineering College, and near Vadapalani bus depot, on Kamarajar Salai,
at Dr Radhakrishnan Salai junction and on Purusawalkam High Road.

The Alwarpet flyover is likely to be right-angled, beginning on
Chamiers Road turning left on to TTK Road and ending at St Mary’s Road
junction. The junction connects commuters from RA Puram, Adyar, OMR,
Guindy and beyond to Nungambakkam, Chetpet, Anna Nagar and beyond. It is
also an alternative route from central Chennai to the airport when Anna
Salai is jammed.

The flyover at Madhya Kailash junction was
suggested in 2007-08, but had to be dropped because CLRI refused to give
up land. The new one is likely to begin at Thiruvi-ka bridge and run to
Kotturpuram bridge, over Buckingham Canal. This removes the problem of
land acquisition. A flyover will be built from Arcot Road to Kaliamman
Koil Street, which connects Koyambedu with Kodambakkam. The fourth at
Valluvar Kottam is likely to be three-armed and allow commuters from Dr
MGR Salai to drive to Thirumullai Pillai Road directly.

The
four new flyovers will be in addition to the 13 existing ones and four
more that are coming up. The corporation proposed seven flyovers last
year, of which three were shelved due to metro rail construction and
inability to find consultants. The other four are on track.

However, transport experts do not believe that flyovers are the solution
to traffic congestion. “Creating space for private motor vehicles is a
never-ending problem,” says Shreya Gadepalli, regional director of
Institute of Transport and Development Policy. “Any flyover will get
overwhelmed in a few years,” she said.

Commuters welcome the
opportunity to skip a signal. “I pick and drop my children at AMM
school. If I don’t have to share road space with commuters going to
Alwarpet I can save time,” said Jayashree P, a resident of Greenways
Road.