Porur flyover likely to be ready by July

Chennai

The 475-metre-long and 17.2-metre-wide flyover was proposed in 2010. However, after a couple of pillars came up, the work was intermittently stalled due to various reasons. This caused great hardship for both the motorists and residents in the area. Sources said that highways officials were at last able to float a tender in October 2015. Since then, work is going on in full swing and a score of pillars have been constructed.

“One needs to wait for at least 20 to 30 minutes to cross the Porur intersection. Further, vehicles from Vadapalani coming through Valasaravakkam pile up on one side, while vehicles from Guindy pile up on the other side crippling all motorists near the place,” said M Saravanan, a motorist who passes through this intersection on week days.

While the construction of flyover should have taken only six months, it had been six  years since work started, he lamented. But he was happy now as girders had been placed on the pillars and work was under way. A senior engineer of SH (Metro Wing), on condition of anonymity, told DTNext that though work was earlier delayed, they  had intensified construction after tender was floated last year. “Work was stalled now and then because they faced difficulty in shifting Metrowater supply. Further, at one point, no one came forward to respond to the tender,” the engineer said, assuring that work would be completed in July.

Traffic constables posted at the junction to regulate traffic heave a sigh of relief as the pace of work has picked up. “Even I have seen many motorists cribbing about this intersection and delay in the construction of flyover. We also faced a lot of difficulties in regulating the traffic,” a traffic constable said. He hoped that traffic congestion would be reduced after the commisioning of the flyover.
 
Timeline

2012: Tenders floated by SH (Metro) fail
2013: Metro wing returns Rs 8 crore to Highways dept
2014: Highways dept reworks design of flyover
2015: Construction resumes in October  SH proposes to increase original estimate of 34.72 crore by 20 crore in December