Kamal Ghorui
Chennai: The state highways department has begun major widening works at the Padi rail overbridge (ROB) on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai (Inner Ring Road).The ongoing work, worth 139 crores, will expand the existing three-lane bridge into a dual five-lane structure and widen the narrow approach stretch towards Padi, a long-standing traffic bottleneck on the corridor.Highways chief engineer Jawahar Muthuraj said the department will lay the portions of road and place girders within their land. “The stretch crossing the railway tracks will be done by Southern Railway. They are sourcing the girders from their yard in Arakkonam,” he said, adding that some electrical line shifting is also involved.The width will increase from 27m to 53m, including footpaths on both sides. The approach road and adjoining stretches are also being widened to five lanes with a central median to streamline traffic movement. “The work will be completed by April,” he added.The ROB, located between Villivakkam and Korattur railway stations, currently forms a choke point on the Inner Ring Road. While most stretches of the arterial corridor from Manali to Guindy have five lanes on either side, the 1.1-km stretch near Padi narrows sharply, reducing to just two lanes near the railway station and leading to frequent traffic snarls and accidents.The highways is also building two U-shaped service roads beneath the Villivakkam ROB for 14 crore. The 7.5m wide roads will allow vehicles to take U-turns towards North Korattur and Padi without entering the busy junction.Once built, the service roads are expected to ease congestion near the North Korattur signal and allow light vehicles to bypass the intersection. The National Highways Authority of India is expanding other stretches of the Inner Ring Road as well.
