Shops delaying grade separator demolished

CHENNAI: The last hurdle to completing work on the two-level Velachery grade separator has gone. The project connecting three arterial roads at the Vijayanagar junction in Velachery may be thrown open for traffic by year-end after officials razed six shops, sub-divided into 11, a couple of days ago.
The demolition, officials said, would facilitate speeding up work on the project, 80% of which has been completed.Once the separator becomes operational, traffic at the junction, now a picture of chaos, is expected to become smooth.
After acquiring the 9,100sqft land parcel on Velachery Bypass Road spread over two survey numbers, following a prolonged litigation in the Madras high court, the state highways department had demolished all the other outlets earlier. Though the project was scheduled to be completed in September 2018, it was dragged for more than two years due to opposition to acquire the six shops.
The key infrastructure project will have two levels. While the 1km-long level two will be 17m from the ground and link Velachery-Taramani Road and Velachery Bypass Road, level one will be 8.5m high and will directly connect Velachery Bypass Road and Velachery Main Road, that stretches from Saidapet to Tambaram.
The only challenge now, officials in the highways department say, is the absence of construction labour. "Guest workers from other states have left for home and masons within Tamil Nadu are refusing to come to Chennai over Covid-19 scare. Still, we are hopeful to finish the work by end of 2020," an official said.
The project was announced five years ago with the total cost including construction and land acquisition estimated at 145 crore. The cost has now escalated manifold.
The demand for the project was a long-standing one, with residents and activists saying a flyover was the only solution to the congestion at the spot where motorists, most of them from suburban areas in the south, can be seen sweating it out in long queues. Sometimes, particularly during the morning and rush hours, the line of stranded vehicles can stretch for more than 2km.