The Hindu 18.02.2010

Thiruvanmiyur flyover and subway project yet to take off

Deepa H Ramakrishnan

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

The Thiruvanmiyur junction is one of the busy intersections in Chennai.

CHENNAI: Almost a year after it was proposed in the 2009-10 budget of the Chennai Corporation, a flyover-cum-subway project of the civic body in Thiruvanmiyur remains a non-starter.

Sources in the civic body said that the project, to ease traffic congestion at one of the busy traffic junctions in the city, was unlikely to be pursued in view of the financial constraints.

Mayor M. Subramanian told The Hindu that “it is not possible to allocate funds for the project in the 2010-11 budget. We do not have funds for such a large project. Land acquisition alone will cost around Rs.120 crore.”

On the financial constraints of the Corporation, he said that next fiscal the civic body would be investing around Rs.400 crore, as its share, in construction of stormwater drains and strengthening of canals under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Even for this we may have to obtain loan,” he said.

Several residents of Thiruvanmiyur, however, want the Corporation to construct either a flyover or a subway near the junction. Roshan Jayakumar, a resident, said: “Sometimes it takes around 10 minutes for motorists to cross the junction. Pedestrians find it difficult to cross the junction and are forced to run across,” he said.

V. M. Dhandapani, secretary, Kamaraj Nagar Residents Welfare Association, said traffic changes, such as the one under which vehicles from ECR are being diverted through 22nd East Street, South Avenue and 8th East Street, only shifted the congestion from one point to another. The flyover was a necessity at the junction. “Thiruvanmiyur is the entry point for all traffic from ECR. Even long-distance buses take this route,” he said.

M. Jayaraman of PMK, who is chairman of the Corporation’s Zone 10, said the project must not be shelved. “The Corporation spent a lot of money to construct a flyover on Cenotaph Road for which too it had spent a lot of money on land acquisition. They even fought battles in the High Court and ensured that the flyover came up. We will launch agitation if the flyover-cum-subway project at Thiruvanmiyur junction is dropped,” he said.

Deccan Chronicle 16.02.2010

Koyambedu no less messy than Broadway

Feb. 15: The government had some seven years ago shifted the mofussil bus stand and also the wholesale vegetable/fruit market from Broadway, next to the Madras high court, to Koyambedu, which was then spacious and on the southwest outskirts of the city. But now, Koyambedu has turned out to be more crowded and messy than what Broadway used to be during the worst of human floods at festival times — overcrowded bus terminus, haphazardly parked autos, taxis and omnibuses, corrupt and indifferent traffic cops, not to mention the garbage dumps from the wholesale vegetable/fruit market next door.

“The government has done almost nothing to improve the infrastructure in the area, such as the roads and parking spaces,” says Ms Gayathri Ravikumar, a resident of Virugambakkam, now caught in the whirlpool of the Koyambedu mess.

The worst part is that the planners need not ponder over blueprints for decongesting Koyambedu for the next 20 years, contends an official at the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. “After the Metro Rail was chalked out, we have stopped all planning for further activities in Koyambedu, as the project took up nearly 80 acres in the area. This is, however, a win-win situation for us, as not only will traffic congestion be reduced to a great extent, commercial activity will also be controlled,” the official explained. Once the Outer Ring Road is inaugurated, the heavy vehicles can skip Koyambedu, he added.

The only respite is that the development body is now working on an exclusive bus terminus for omnibuses. “We have earmarked about 4-5 acres of land abutting Nesapakkam road to build a terminus for omnibuses, which will also serve as parking space for those buses that are mostly idle during the day at the mofussil bus terminus,” he said. The floor above the terminus will have a shopping complex, and a consultant has been identified to set up the public-private partnership for the project, the official said. “An alternative site is also being hunted for the foodgrain market that was displaced because of the Metro Rail,” the official added.

Of course, all this would come with a lot of pain during the process as people of the area are already groaning about the trouble they would be put to while all these developments take place.