Road constructions including the Chennai Bypass/IRR extension & ORR. Please post the relevent maps, photos and updates here.

Why don't we make a roads/flyovers/expressways thread, and merge all the road project related threads into it? The current organization of threads is haphazard.

Why don't we make a roads/flyovers/expressways thread, and merge all the road project related threads into it? The current organization of threads is haphazard.

.^^May be we should name this tamilnadu road development thread as there are a lot of 4 laning,rob's and upgrade works being carried out through out the state.
wHAT YA SAY?

The tender document for appointing the consultant for the new high speed circular corridor project in Chennai is on the GoTN website. The document gives good details about the project, including the alignments, phasing etc and has a map (which was posted earlier on one of the threads). While the consultant has been charged with suggesting modifications to the alignment for improving geometry and feasibility, the rough plan is to have the following major aligmnments

1. Light House to Theosophical society along the Adyar estuary (3.3kms)
2. Theosophical Society to Ramapuram along the Adyar banks (11.8kms)
3. Mount-Poonamalee elevated corridor (from Ramapuram to Porur) (4.0kms)
4. Koyambedu Elevated Corridor (along IRR between the Adyar and Cooum rivers) (6.6kms)
5. Cooum/Buckingham Canal junction to Ennore along Buckingham Canal(17.5kms)
6. Cooum/Buckingham Canal junction to IT expressway along Buckingham Canal(10.7kms)
7. Nungambakkam to Saidapet along Mambalam Canal (joining corridor 2 above). (5.6kms)

The other two corridors that NHAI is already building and planning respectively are
1. Part-elevated Chennai Bypass (though an extension to Manali along IRR is not under construction currently but is indicated in this project) (42kms)
2. Elevated corridor along War Memorial to Maduravoyal along Cooum river (18.5kms)

The corridors that are along the river banks are proposed as two-tier elevated structures, while those along road medians are single-tier elevated structures.

Download the tender document to see full details (pg. 38 onwards)
http://www.tenders.tn.gov.in/innerpage.asp?choice=tc5&tid=tnu12019&work=1

Phase 1 opened on thursday,June 20, 2002
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/06/21/stories/2002062100231100.htm
Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony For Widening To 4-Lane Of Chennai Bypass Phase I And Construction Of 4-Lane Chennai Bypass Phase II Held on Sunday, January 30, 2005
http://trbaalu.nic.in/minister/press/2005/Jan05/Jan3005.htm
Inaugration of Four-laning of Chennai Bypass Phase-I up to Porur held on Wednesday,April 09,2008
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=37115

Map from Wikipedia

Chennai Bye-pass, ORR and IRR map

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Chennai_transportation_map.png

Crossposting from ChennaiThread
Update on Chennai Bypass Phase 2--One half of the elevated portion over the 3rd main Rad in Ambattur of about 1.25Km is almost done.Pillars have been erected long ago for the entire stretch.Now placing of concrete blocks on the other half between MTH road and the suburban railway line has begun..If wok goes on as usual, the entire elevated stretch would be done in about 6 months..Then , i think the surface level road would be laid..the deadline of mid 2009 seems realistic...

how about the drainage issue in the elevated stretch in the Bypass ? I think it might become a problem if not tackled, especially when the elevated stretch in long.

Not really sure abt the drainage.
I believe that the bypass would be connected to the MTH road with ramps..When complete, i guess the travel time between Ambattur and Tambaram should be around 30-45 min.At present it takes a min of 2 hours..

Not really sure abt the drainage.
I believe that the bypass would be connected to the MTH road with ramps..When complete, i guess the travel time between Ambattur and Tambaram should be around 30-45 min.At present it takes a min of 2 hours..

is there any exit at cth/mth road at ambattur?

i remember reading that there were plans for more exits in the already finished first phase of this project (between maduravoyal & tambaram). i guess one would be at porur junction.

is there any exit at cth/mth road at ambattur?

i remember reading that there were plans for more exits in the already finished first phase of this project (between maduravoyal & tambaram). i guess one would be at porur junction.

Yes there will be access from Ambattur Industrial estate ( in second phase) . There are 2 sets of ramps: One near Hindustan Photo Films ( for entry & exit to southern side) and one near the railway line at Pattravakkam (for entry and exit to northern side).

Not sure that they are planning any exits in the first phase - can you confirm the source of the info.

Incomplete highway complete chill-out zone for S Chennai
Source:http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920080419003933&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

CHENNAI: FOR the residents of Puzhuthivakkam, and other adjoining areas in south Chennai, the yet to be fully built southern portion of the four-lane Inner Ring Road (IRR) has become a wonderland of sorts.

Work on completing the southern sector of the IRR - with provision for Mass Rapid Transit System in the middle - by linking Velachery with St Thomas Mount via Ullagaram and Adambakkam began last year.

It is expected to be over by the middle of next year. The four-lane highway lies adjacent to several residential localities of Puzhuthivakkam on the one side and Adambakkam on the other.

Up to two kilometres from Velachery, the road work is almost over on the one side but for blacktopping, residents have developed a liking precisely to this stretch.

Caressed by gentle breeze and rejuvenated by the all pervasive calm in the absence of traffic, people walk, jog to music, children play and many take driving lessons on bikes and cars. If private bus contractors find the space convenient to park their vehicles, youngsters turn the place into a makeshift stadium intermittently letting out screams of ‘six’ and ‘four’.

Come weekends, the sprawling expanse of land, now a highway, teems with people render it into a veritable entertainment joint.

There are not many parks in the neighbourhood of Puzhuthivakkam. The available ones are either too small. Against this background, the high-rise, mud levelled road is simply a boon here. On the flip side, after sunset, the place turns pitch dark.

Couples with dubious intention disappear into darkness and young people could be seen downing a peg or two inside cars parked on the roadside and some create nuisance. Police, when contacted, said they would step up patrol in the area.

Though people are happy that once completed, the IRR would soon make access to and from their neighbourhood a far easier task, they are downcast that they would lose a lovely place to walk.

S Arun (40), a resident of Puzhuthivakkam wanted the Highways Department to build pedestrian pathways flanking the IRR. M Saravanan (35), a resident of Adambakkam said people could walk to Velachery easily without getting caught in traffic snarls if pedestrian strips were provided.

Yes there will be access from Ambattur Industrial estate ( in second phase) . There are 2 sets of ramps: One near Hindustan Photo Films ( for entry & exit to southern side) and one near the railway line at Pattravakkam (for entry and exit to northern side).

Not sure that they are planning any exits in the first phase - can you confirm the source of the info.

How do u know these details? Any sources??

How do u know these details? Any sources??

I happened to see the detailed plans for the bypass at the time of launch of the project. It was also made clear at the time of launch - Check out http://www.blonnet.com/2005/01/31/stories/2005013100691300.htm . Quote "The NH-205 (Chennai-Renigunta) will be connected by ramps to the elevated flyover, and eight underpasses along with service road will be provided for movement of local traffic." Only hope ideas have not changed over the last 3 years ( not likely though)

Mayor inspects road works

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Mayor M.Subramanian on Thursday inspected road widening work at various locations, including Kathipara Road, Velachery Main Road, Sardar Patel Road and Five Furlong Road.

Road widening work has been completed at Konnur High Road, Kolathur Red Hills Road, M.T.H. Road, Anna Main Road, Taluk Office Road, St. Mary’s Road, Gandhi Road, C.S.I.R. Road and Lake View Road. It is on at Dr. Radhakrishnan Road, T.T.K. Road and between 60-feet Road and Vallal Paari Salai, said a press release.

According to a release, work has been completed or is in progress for road totalling over 13 km at the cost of Rs.4.85 crore. Such projects have been undertaken on Madhavaram High Road, T.M. Nair Road, Gandhi Irwin Road.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/09/stories/2008050960690400.htm

http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/25/stories/2007082560750300.htm
CHENNAI: Land acquisition for the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project between Old Mahabalipuram Road and the Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panjetty (TPP) Road is nearing completion.

The acquisition for the nearly 62-kilometre long project, connecting NH-45 at Vandalur and NH-4 at Nazarathpet, was undertaken in two stages. In the first stage, a distance of 29.5 kilometres between NH-45 and Chennai Tiruvallur High (CTH) Road, the acquisition was completed in early 2005.

With the Government according administrative sanction for the second phase between the CTH Road and TPP Road, land acquisition is under way and is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

The six-lane ORR will include a provision for 22-metre-wide corridor for public transport. Land on either side of the project has been earmarked for either road widening or commercial exploitation.

The project cost, estimated at Rs.500 crore two years ago, has now been put at Rs. 850 crore.

BOT basis

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority proposed the ORR, along the outer edges of the Chennai Metropolitan Area, to help relieve traffic congestion and enable dispersal of urban growth. The ORR is to be executed on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis.

The Highways Department had proposed the ORR under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and the project was included in the City Development Plan for Chennai submitted to the Centre for approval.

source:http://www.cmdachennai.org/outerringroad1.html



OUTER RING ROAD

CMDA is planning the development of Outer Ring Road (ORR) along the periphery of Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) with the objective of relieving the congestion within the city and also for catalysing the even dispersal of urban growth.

ORR connects NH45 at Vandalur, NH4 at Nazarathpet, NH 205 at Nemilichery. NH5 at Nallur and TPP road at Minjur and is of length 62.3 km. The configuration of the alignment comprises of dual system of both road and rail corridor in a width of 72m. 50 m. wide portion of land is reserved for future developments. The estimated project cost is about Rs.850 crores.
Land Acquisition has been taken up in two phases. The first phase of land Acquisition from NH 45 to NH 205 for a length of 29.5 km covering 29 villages has been completed and possession taken over by CMDA. The second phase of acquisition from NH 205 to TPP Road covering 28 villages is under progress.

A Consultancy Study for preparation of a Detailed Feasibility Report for development of ORR in CMA has been completed. On approval of the DFR by Government, the preparation of DPR will be taken up.

Length
62.30 km

No. of Segments
4

Width
122 m. (400’) wide comprising about 50 m wide for forming 2 way transportation corridor with 6 lanes and 2 service lanes and 50 m wide for provision of required public facilities and commercial exploitation along the transportations corridor, 22 m wide strip in the center reserved for future Mass Rapid System/LRT

Extent
545.08.5 Hectares

Segment
Seg I – GST Road (Vandalur) to GWT Road,
( Nazarathpet)
Length – 19.7 km,
Extent – 265.34 Ha


Seg 2 – GWT Road (Nazrathpet) to CTH Road (Nemilicherry)
Length – 9.5 km,
Extent – 140.9 Ha




Seg 3– CTH Road (Nemilicherry) to GNT Road (Nallur)
Length – 19.1 km,
Extent – 258.02 Ha.




Seg.4 – GNT Road (Nallur) to TPP Road (Minjur)
Length – 14 km,
Extent – 195.8 Ha

Cost Approximately
Rs.850 Crores (for final configuration)

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042959060200.htm
CHENNAI: An outer ring road will be built on the city outskirts to reduce traffic congestion on the existing roads. The project will be taken up in two phases.

Highways Minister M.P.Saminathan said the road would start from Vandalur in NH 45 and go up to Minjur, through Tiruvottiyur – Ponneri – Panchetty for a length of 62 km linking Bangalore, Tirupati, and Calcutta roads.

Land acquisition has been completed for a length of 34 km. The project is to be taken up under public-private partnership mode in the first phase from Vandalur to Nemilicheri, the Minister said while presenting the demand of his Ministry in the Assembly on Monday.

According to Mr.Saminathan, the Chennai Bypass from Tambaram to Maduravoyal would be converted to four lane from two lane carriageway and a new bypass from Maduravoyal to Puzhal had been taken up for a length of 13 km by National Highways Authority of India at a cost of Rs.405 crore. NHAI was taking action to complete the works during the current year.

Under the Chennai Metropolitan Development Plan, the State had sanctioned 11 works consisting of 6 grade separators, one ROB and 4 river bridges at a cost of Rs 219 crore.

Of these, grade separator at the junction of Marmalong Bridge-Irumbuliyur Road and Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Road near Pallikaranai was under execution. The government has decided to widen the Rajiv Gandhi Salai (IT Corridor) from Siruseri to Mamallapuram. A sum of Rs.70 crore had been sanctioned for acquiring land required for the project. Once the land acquisition was completed, the work would be taken up.

Widening of ECR


A feasibility study would be done through Tamilnadu Road Development Company for widening the East Coast Road from Chennai to Puducherry in view of the heavy traffic. After the receipt of the feasibility report, which would also take into consideration environmental impact, further action would be taken up, he added.

source:http://www.cmdachennai.org/outerringroad1.html



OUTER RING ROAD

CMDA is planning the development of Outer Ring Road (ORR) along the periphery of Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) with the objective of relieving the congestion within the city and also for catalysing the even dispersal of urban growth.

ORR connects NH45 at Vandalur, NH4 at Nazarathpet, NH 205 at Nemilichery. NH5 at Nallur and TPP road at Minjur and is of length 62.3 km. The configuration of the alignment comprises of dual system of both road and rail corridor in a width of 72m. 50 m. wide portion of land is reserved for future developments. )

Good plan.

As per the map from Wikipedia, the ORR goes from Vandalur(in Beach-Chengalpattu line) to Minjur(in Central-Gumidipundi line) via Ponnamalle Thiruniravur (in Central-Arrakonam line).

In long term if a railway line is constructed along ORR from Vandalur to Minjur via Thiruninravur, this will be an excellent suburban corridor for Chennai Metropolitan.

But regarding ORR, Chennai bye-pass and IRR,

Why it was not considered from ECR?

ECR-ECR Link Road-Sholinganallur-Medavakkam-East Tambaram road should be part of Chennai bye-pass instead of Radial road.

ECR-Kelambakkam-Vandalur road should be inclunded along with ORR.

I believe SRP tools-Velacherry-Adambakkam-St.Thomas mount road is the part of IRR.

This will cover from south coastal instead from NH 45.

This will help in developing the south Chennai Metropolitan areas line Thiruvanmiyur, Neelangarai, Pallavakkam, Sholinganallur, Perugudi, Thoraipakkam, Pallikaranai, Siruseri, Navallur, Semmanacherri, Padur, Kelambakkam etc.,

Inner Ring Road southern extension taking shape



R. Srikanth



The five-km road will link Velachery Main Road with GST Road

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/15/images/2008051559560301.jpg

CHENNAI: Work on the southern arm of Inner Ring Road (IRR), to link two crucial arterial roads in south Chennai through some of the fast developing localities around Velachery and Nanganallur, is progressing in full swing.

The State Highways Department, the implementing agency, has initiated the road development work simultaneously from both ends — near the Velachery MRTS station (Velachery Main Road) and Grand Southern Trunk Road.

The five-kilometre project involves creating a four-lane road each on both sides of the proposed MRTS network from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount stations. After some distance, the road will be a single three-lane corridor. On completion, the Rs.95-crore project is expected to reduce travel time for residents of many of the localities and congestion on the two busy roads.

Out of the total cost, a little over Rs.60 crore is towards land acquisition and the rest for project, including laying the road and creating associated facilities such as culverts. While the road is scheduled to be opened by early 2009, the black-topping will be completed by the first quarter, says an official.

Detailing the project, he says the IRR arm from Velachery Main Road will have two 30-feet (four lane) roads below the flyover, near the MRTS station. Two bridges, with an elevated track for MRTS between them, are to be constructed over the Adambakkam lake.

The MRTS elevated network will be above the bridge. Metropolitan Transport Project, which is executing the MRTS work, has started pile foundation work for the elevated tracks. A railway official says two railway stations - Puzhuthivakkam and Adambakkam – will come up between Velachery and St. Thomas Mount.

On the Velachery side, the department is constructing two culverts to facilitate free flow of water from one side of Pallikaranai swamp to the other. A ‘kuccha’ road has been laid below the Velachery flyover on both sides of Velachery Main Road till Balaji Nagar Main Road. On GST Road end, work to link the IRR arm with the Thillai Ganga Nagar subway is in progress. About 40 per cent of the road work has been completed. Land acquisition too is over, except for 700 metres near Vanuvampet. A total of 65 houses, comprising both buildings and thatched huts have to be acquired for the project, the highways official says.

Construction of four culverts between Balaji Nagar Main Road in Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam and the Velachery Station are part of the project for channelling rainwater from Veerangal Odai and Velachery Canal to the southern side of the Pallikaranai swamp. A temporary canal has been created on both sides of the ‘kuccha’ road to channel the rainwater to the Pallikaranai swamp and prevent flooding of nearby residential colonies. There is also a proposal to construct a permanent canal on both sides of the road and subsequently increase width of the road.

The State Highways Department, the implementing agency, has initiated the road development work simultaneously from both ends — near the Velachery MRTS station (Velachery Main Road) and Grand Southern Trunk Road.
GST & IRR is going to be connected by bridge? (Trumbet Interchange,or similar to chrombet bridge)

After some distance, the road will be a single three-lane corridor.

Why? Any land issue?

Source:http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/16/stories/2008051657780300.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/16/images/2008051657780301.jpg
CHENNAI: Ten international consultancy firms have evinced interest in preparing a detailed project report for the High Speed Elevated Circular Corridor project in the city.

Representatives of the firms attended a pre-bid meeting conducted by the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL)here on Wednesday. They were briefed on the project and need to study its feasibility, cleaning up waterways and rehabilitation of those living along them. The deadline to submit bids is May 28.

TNUIFSL had invited bids last month on behalf of Adyar Poonga Trust. The project envisages creation of transportation corridors along the major city waterways to reduce traffic congestion on the existing roads . The consultants will be required to study, plan and design the project, covring 120 km . While the TNUIFSL would take up work on 59.5 km, the rest would be by National Highways Authority of India and State Highways department.

The Rs.2,300-crore project proposes to develop four circular corridors linking several areas along the waterways, including the Buckingham canal and the Cooum river. The outer circular corridor would connect important areas in the city from Light House to Chennai Port, including IT Corridor, Maduravoyal, Ennore and Vyasarpadi.

There would also be three inner circular corridors branching out from the major intra city road alignments to decongest the city traffic. While one would connect areas such as Mylapore, Porur, Koyambedu, Anna Nagar, Egmore with Chennai Port, another would link areas such as Triplicane, Ekkaduthangal, Nungambakkam with the port. The third corridor would address the traffic problem in South Chennai by connecting areas, including T.Nagar, West C.I.T. Nagar and Nungambakkam along the Cooum river.

The consultants would need to prepare a report for the Adyar River Front project to be taken up as the first phase. It includes cleaning up the river and building a carriageway for a Bus Rapid Transport System on an elevated corridor from Adyar to Porur. TNUIFSL’s advisor (Roads) M.S. Srinivasan said the project aims at tackling various other problems in addition to the traffic chaos in the city. “We want to identify the pollutants of the waterways and arrest them. There is a plan to establish small sewage treatment plants in slum tenements along the river banks to prevent release of untreated sewage.”

Deleted

source:http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/19/stories/2008051953370500.htm
....
The State Government has given in-principle clearance for road widening on the stretches between Thiruninravur and Padi and Thiruninravur and Pattabiram.
....

GST & IRR is going to be connected by bridge? (Trumbet Interchange,or similar to chrombet bridge)

Why? Any land issue?

I bet it is called chrompet bridge:lol:

I bet it is called chrompet bridge:lol:
:nuts: Yen thappu.

Any idea?Bridge is going to be constructed ?
If both IRR & MRTS Joins with GST near Airport,It would be better,Right.
As per the current plan,Users coming from MRTS they have to get down at ST mount and take another train towards Airport.

The Chennai Corporation has cleared the way for laying ducts on more major roads in the city, including Nelson Manickam Salai, Arcot Salai, G.N.Chetty Road, North Usman Road and South Usman Road by telecom service providers and cable television operators.

The Chennai Cable Consortium (CCC), whose member companies include Skylink, Airtel, Aircel, BSNL, VSNL (Tata), Hathways, Tata Tele services, SCV, U Telecom, Railtel and Power Grid, have finished laying ducts and removed overhead cables on Nungambakkam High Road. Work on Nelson Manickam Road (2.5 km) and Sterling Road (1.2 km) is expected to begin soon.

A Corporation official said, “We have 300 km of bus route roads and we have already given permission for ducts to be laid on 120 km. In the remaining stretches too, we will take up the job in phases.”

CCC secretary Radhakrishna Vittaldev said that in certain portions of 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Anna Nagar, the overhead cables were being removed. On Cathedral Road, the ducting process has been completed. In the course of next month, the cables would be removed.

The CCC has spent close to Rs. 1.5 crore in Anna Nagar for the two roads alone, which total to 5.2 km. For the work on Nungambakkam High Road with a length of 2 km, the consortium has spent around Rs.50 lakh and for the 1.5 km-long Cathedral Road they have spent around Rs.40 lakh.

“The costs are shared by the service providers on the basis of the space used by them. Apart from this, each service provider has to pay the Chennai Corporation Rs. 9,400 for each km every year,” he added.

source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052359270400.htm

http://epaper.dinamalar.com/Web/Article/2008/05/27/013/27_05_2008_013_003.jpg


Govt planned to convert Poonamallee Highway in to 4 lane.(from Byepass Road Intersection to Coyembedu 100 ft Intersection)
They started the activity 1 and half years before and planned to finish it off within this june.
But project is moving in snail's pace.So it is not possible to finish the project within the end of this year also.

http://www.tnhighways.org/gallery.htm

source:http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/30/stories/2008053059680300.htm

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation on Thursday removed encroachments on South Mada Street and 1st Seaward Road, which lead to Valmiki Nagar, as part of its efforts to ease vehicular movement in residential areas of Thiruvanmiyur.

A total of 80 staff of the civic body, three earth-movers and five lorries were pressed into service to remove encroachments by 35 houses and 15 commercial establishments. Police protection was provided for the operation and traffic on the stretches was blocked for sometime.

South Mada Street is 80 feet wide on one end connecting to East Coast Road and 52 feet on the other end that leads to Valmiki Nagar. The houses and shops encroached upon about 4 to 5 feet of the road, which is lined with trees.

Road-widening work at an estimated cost of Rs.20 lakh would be taken up and completed within 15 days.

Zonal Officer M. Sampath said a survey on the encroachments on another stretch in Thiruvanmiyur, East Mada Street, was in progress.

The decision to widen the roads was taken nearly three months ago, he added.

Corporation officials said that there was a proposal to construct a subway-cum-flyover at the Jayanthi Theatre junction and at the time of the construction these roads would be utilised to divert traffic.

source:http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=267376&code=17441
http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=267376&code=17431
http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/3052008/DN_30-05-08_E6_17-05%20CNI.jpg

Road Milling Machine:It will pull existing road surface,so when new road laid it wont increase height of the road.

This machine is going to be used in Chennai corporation.

^^ finally, someone's had a dose of brains

Chennai: The muchawaited expansion of the 21-km long stretch of the Madras-Tirupati high (MTH) road from Padi junction to Thiruninravur is facing hurdles with a trader’s body, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangankalin Peravai, opposing it.
While the National Highways Authority of India has decided to widen the MTH road (national highway 205) as a 200-feet road, the traders argue that 75 feet is enough for the road expansion and a wider road would displace the small trading community here.
The traders’ forum formed a 15-member committee last week to take up the issue with the authorities concerned in the state and central governments. It also cautioned that it would go on an agitation if the authorities tried to relocate them.
Speaking to the Times of India, TN Vanigar Sangankalin Peravai president T Vellaiyan said, “We are not opposing the project as such, but only insist that it should be reasonable. Even the width of the Inner Ring Road where the Koyambedu Bus Terminus is situated is only 100 ft. If that is the case, we don’t understand why they need a 200 ft road here. The government should realise that widening of this road would affect thousands of small traders.’’
Traders won’t raise any objection even if it was 90 ft but anything more than that would invite severe protest, Vellaiyan added.
However, sources in the NHAI said they need a minimum of 150 ft for road expansion. “As per the NHAI rules, the road should have a width of 200 ft. However, we told the state government if they could not provide us 200 ft, we would require at least 150 ft.’’ They said it was estimated that more than 3,500 structures on both sides of the road would be demolished whether it is 150 ft or 200 ft expansion.
“As of now, the state government is examining the project. We have given four proposals to the government including construction of an elevated highway on MTH Road. We hope things will become clear in a month or two,’’ NHAI sources said.
Another controversy likely to arise is from the people themselves, with the NHAI’s proposal to lay this road under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme, if the government does not come forward to fund the project.
Sources said that under the BOT scheme, a private firm will build the road and collect toll from road users.
Vehicles except twowheelers and autorickshaws have to pay the specified toll to use the road.


source:http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=TOICH&login=default

Govt is having any plan for widening the Kodambakkam-Arcot Road?
Is there any way to improve this road?How come they left out this road?
I guess other important roads in chennai are some what managable.

Govt is having any plan for widening the Kodambakkam-Arcot Road?
Is there any way to improve this road?How come they left out this road?
I guess other important roads in chennai are some what managable.

Arcot road can be considered the total face of Traffic Congestion... I don't think any govt will dare to touch it as it would lead to more chaos rather than improving it..
we can introduce "Magic Boxes"... like what they do in Bangalore for Traffic junctions... which is placing precasted bridges.. supposed to take not more than a couple of weeks (but actually it takes more than a month to complete the installation in Bangalore)... Or the other way is to bypass it like many vehicles do by using the IRR, Kathipara and GST.. :(

Govt is having any plan for widening the Kodambakkam-Arcot Road?
Is there any way to improve this road?How come they left out this road?
I guess other important roads in chennai are some what managable.

as per new master plan, arcot road was to become a 100 ft road. you would see all new projects putting up their compound walls well inside.

as per new master plan, arcot road was to become a 100 ft road. you would see all new projects putting up their compound walls well inside.

From this link http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/21/stories/2004072110250300.htm,I came to know,Arcot road was origionally 100 ft road.

The 100-feet Arcot Road, which is closer to 80 feet near Vadapalani, narrows down to 40 feet near Virugambakkam market before once again widening near Porur. Of course, the `100-feet road' tag does not fit the bill anywhere.


If it is due to encroachments,govt would have removed it long before.

I prepared this list from our earlier postings.Any one knows the current status please update.


Bypass Road Phase II (4 lanning )- Under Construction
Inner Ring Road (Velachery to GST) - Under Construction
Sholinganallur road 4 lanning to connect East Coast Road and Old Mamallapuram Road - Under Construction
Poonamallee Highway 4 lanning from Byepass Road Intersection to Coyembedu 100 ft Intersection - Under Construction

Light House to Theosophical society along the Adyar estuary (3.3kms) - proposed
Theosophical Society to Ramapuram along the Adyar banks (11.8kms)- proposed
Mount-Poonamalee elevated corridor (from Ramapuram to Porur) (4.0kms)- proposed
Koyambedu Elevated Corridor (along IRR between the Adyar and Cooum rivers) (6.6kms)- proposed
Cooum/Buckingham Canal junction to Ennore along Buckingham Canal(17.5kms)- proposed
Cooum/Buckingham Canal junction to IT expressway along Buckingham Canal(10.7kms)- proposed
Nungambakkam to Saidapet along Mambalam Canal (joining corridor 2 above). (5.6kms)- proposed
Elevated corridor along War Memorial to Maduravoyal along Cooum river (18.5kms) - Proposed
Outer Ring Road - Proposed
Thiruninravur and Padi Road 4 lanning - Proposed
Thiruninravur and Pattabiram. Road 4 lanning- Proposed
East Coast Road extending between Chennai & Cuddalore of length 159 km - Proposed
East Coast Road 4 lanning - Proposed
Widening of Singaperumalkoil – Sriperumpudur road (SH-57) (24.60 Km) to six lane with central median (Four laning in phase-I) - Proposed
Widening of Vandalur – Wallajabad road (SH-48) (33.60 Km) to four lane - Proposed
Forming a Bye pass for Ponthur Village in Singaperumalkoil – Sriperumbudur Road - Proposed
Forming Service road for 3 km on each side of the junction at Oragadam - Proposed

Very good compilation Techcity! :)

Four-lane East Coast Road under study (http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/17/stories/2008061750110100.htm)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/17/images/2008061750110101.jpg

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) has been entrusted with the task of taking up a techno-feasibility study besides geometric corrections on the East Coast Road to covert it into a four-lane road from the existing two-lane main carriageway.

“The Tamil Nadu government is keen on widening the main carriage of the ECR to help de-congest the increasing road traffic flowing on this stretch, as many theme parks and boating yard facilities are located on this entertainment corridor,” a senior official of the TNRDC told The Hindu on Monday.

The official said the TNRDC authorities, especially those connected with the road traffic management, would meet software companies located on the IT corridor next week to work together and sort out matters relating to traffic problems.

Referring to the proposed 10-lane toll plaza at Perungudi on the IT corridor, the official said apart from this primary toll plaza, the TNRDC authorities would be constructing satellite toll plazas at Thorapakkam, the Sholinganallur-Medavakkam junction, the ECR link road to Sholinganallur and Siruseri.

The toll for one-way travel for three-wheelers, including autorickshaws, from Perungudi to Siruseri has been fixed at Rs.6, for four-wheelers it is Rs.17; buses including those operated by the State Road Transport Corporation will be charged Rs.44 and trucks Rs.66.

The official said that 12 more foot overbridges (FOBs) would come up on the 20.1-km IT corridor six-lane main carriage way.

Already, there are three FOBs between Madhya Kailash Temple to the SRP Tools Road junction. The IT corridor was currently handling 40,000 vehicles a day.

Proposal to widen CTH Road gets a nod from local bodies

Traders, who will be hit by land acquisition process, are likely to oppose it


Waiting for relief: Motorists experiencing the agony of inching traffic as seen in Mannurpet on CTH Road.

CHENNAI: It may soon be the end of the daily ordeal for motorists taking the battered Padi and Thiruninravur stretch of the Chennai Tiruvallur High Road as Ambattur and Avadi Municipalities have given consent for improvements to and widening of the road.

The project, to be taken up by the National Highways Authority of India, may, however, run into trouble as traders along the CTH Road, who would be affected by the land acquisition process, are likely to oppose it.

Both the municipalities gave their approval for the project, including acquisition of the additional land to widen the road up to 60 metres. Officials of both the local bodies said the decision was unanimously taken by the council members.

The progress in the proposal to widen the CTH Road, a crucial link to Andhra Pradesh, has brought cheer to the residents of various areas en route. Residents complained that several stretches of the busy road were in an appalling condition, particularly in Thirumullaivoyal. Despite repeated representations made to repair the crater-filled stretches, the road has seen little improvement in the past two years.

“I have little option than to bear the back-breaking ride on the CTH Road to reach my office in Chetpet. What used to be hardly 20-minute ride from Thirumullaivoyal to the Padi junction now takes nearly an hour, owing to the heavy traffic,” said Venkat Sriram, a resident of Thirumullaivoyal.

Accidents are a common feature of the CTH Road as the road, narrow in a few stretches, is also used by heavy vehicles. Residents recalled an accident sometime ago, which involved a motorcycle and tipper lorry in Padi that proved fatal for a young woman who rode pillion on the bike.

General secretary of People’s Voice Roy Rozario said that several stretches were accident-prone. At least four to five accidents on the CTH Road were reported in a month.

Vice-president of Tamil Nadu Progressive Consumer Centre T. Sadagopan said commuters in share-autorickshaws face the risk of being thrown off the vehicles on the bumpy stretches.

On the other hand, the project proposal has disheartened a section of traders. State general secretary of Tamil Nadu Traders’ Federation K.Mohan said that about 25,000 traders along the CTH Road would be affected.

“We have decided to co-operate for widening the road up to 75 feet. We may have to oppose the project in case of adverse impact on traders,” he said.

An NHAI official said that as the local bodies had agreed to widen the road up to 60 metres, the project on the 22-km stretch would be taken up at the ground-level instead of creating an elevated corridor. At least 45 metres of space was needed for the project to take off. Land acquisition for the project, to be implemented on the ‘build-operate and transfer’ basis, would begin shortly, he added.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/18/stories/2008061860980400.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/18/images/2008061860980401.jpg

Staff Reporter

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

It will cover traffic studies and surveys

The findings will help in judicious investments in road infrastructure

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHENNAI: The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has launched a comprehensive transportation study for Chennai under the ongoing World Bank-funded Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project-III (TNUDP-III).

The 18-month-long study would cover an extensive set of traffic studies and surveys, including roadside origin and destination surveys, traffic volume counts on all critical road links and intersections, a massive household interview survey to capture the passenger travel characteristics of the metropolis, parking surveys, commercial vehicle surveys, intermediate public transport surveys, bus and rail commuters’ surveys, bus and rail commuters’ surveys and accident traffic analysis.

The study will provide a directional plan for the Chennai Metropolitan Area and assist in making judicious investments in road and transport infrastructure, says a release. The study assumes significance in the context of the second Master Plan becoming operational shortly.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/19/stories/2008061958550200.htm

Roman Tarmat bagged two new work order worth Rs 1064.8 million from Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Corporation (Govt. of Tamil Nadu Undertaking).

The two projects are Oragadam Industrial Corridor , Singaperumalkooil at Sriperumpudur road and Kancheepuram at Wallajabad road.

The business activities can be categorized into the following three segments: airside works, highways and roads, and other civil works

It has been a while since we heard of any news about Chennai Bypass Phase-II from Madhuravoyal to Madhavaram

Any pictures/updates?

CHENNAI: Here is good news for pedestrians. The Chennai Corporation is all set to scrape road surfaces on select routes before re-laying them. This is to ensure the height of the road remains the same and does not cause flooding along the sides. The process is known as milling.


"In the initial phase, a cold milling machine will be used to remove the asphalt layer on 38 roads for a distance of 16 km. The local body has issued a short tender notice to execute the work soon," an official told The Times of India.

The city has 305 km of bus route roads. According to official sources, the cold milling machine will remove the surface layer to a depth of 40 mm to avoid any damage to the foundation.

The original plan was that select locations in each of the ten zones would be milled and re-laid.

"We are happy with the results of the pilot process. The same technology can be adopted on the remaining bus route roads as well. Usually, blacktopping increases the height of roads, leaving the buildings on both sides prone to water logging during rains. The milling process is the best solution,” the official said.

In the current fiscal, BRR department has planned to take up 60 arterial roads for re-laying and tenders were floated in April and May. However, after finding cold milling successful, the local body has planned to include atleast 50 of them in the list of roads to be milled before re-laying.

The short tender notice for milling of 38 roads included Thiruvottiyur High Road from Tollgate to Ponnusamy Street, Prakasam Salai, Anna Nagar First Avenue (from New Avadi Road to Anna Nagar Sixth Avenue), Anna Nagar Sixth Avenue (from Anna Nagar Third Avenue to Second Main Road), Millers Road (from Dr Alagappa Road to Purasawakkam High Road), Dr Alagappa Road (from Raja Annamalai Road to Millers Road). Patullos Road, Woods Road, East Ramanathan Road, West Cott Road, Mayor Sunder Rao Road, Ashok Nagar Tenth Avenue, West Sivan Koil Street, Eldams Road, Pasumpon Muthu Ramalingam Salai, Ponniamman Koil Street and Ellaiamman Koil Street, part of Five Furlong Road, Race Course Road and Velachery Main Road.

Dr Muthulakshmi Salai, Kalki Krishnamurthy Salai, Gandhi Salai (from Velachery Main Road to Ambika Salai), part of Mandaveli Street, Karaneeswarar Pagoda Street, Sardar Patel Road, Durgabai Deshmukh Road, Greenways Road and Brick Kiln Road.

Source:TimesofIndia (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Chennai/Corp_finds_way_to_re-lay_roads/articleshow/3234182.cms)

HOW GREEN IS YOUR ROAD?
Hedges to partition 69 arterial roads
Granite Slabs Being Erected As Medians, Bus Shelters To Dazzle
Julie Mariappan | TNN

Chennai: Come monsoon and the city’s frequently-cursed roads will blossom — literally. The Chennai Corporation is giving a complete makeover to a majority of the city’s arterial roads, sprucing them up with sparkling new medians that will be topped with a green cover and colourful bus shelters that will make up for the advertising space lost due to the pulling down of hoardings.
In the initial phase, the corporation has taken up 69 roads to provide them granite medians. Wide granite slabs will replace the loose kerbs put up by the traffic police on important stretches to streamline vehicular movement and to ensure lane discipline among the motorists. On some other specific roads, granite slabs will be set up on request from the traffic police.
According to sources in the corporation, work on 20 roads has already been completed so far while in the remaining stretches, it is in various stages of completion. Running on top of the medians will be a green cover, with each road getting three species of plants — clerodendron, tabernaemontana and ixora chinensis. After the monsoon, the congested roads will witness a burst of green. At least 30 km will be covered during the current fiscal year.
The contractors have been asked to take up the saplingplanting themselves and work has been completed in a few stretches including Anna Nagar and Egmore. But the corporation is not entirely happy with the manner in which the contractors are going about the plantation. “So we have asked the overseers of our various parks to supervise the plantation drive in all the ten zones,” a senior corporation official said. The corporation is also taking precautions against drivers ramming into the granite slabs: reflective pavement markers or road studs will be anchored on the road surface for lane-marking and delineation for nighttime visibility. The reflective panels will consist of a number of lenses containing single or dual prismatic cubes capable of
providing internal reflection.
It’s not just the medians that are being spruced up. Another eyesore on Chennai’s roads, the dilapidated bus shelters, will also make way for a swanky version. “Jindal Steels Limited has bagged the contract for three of the four sets of bus shelters. They quoted Rs 6 crore, which is more than what the previous contractor had offered. Negotiation is still on for the fourth set,” the sources said.
The construction of shelters will begin as soon as the project gets the official nod from the elected council during its meeting this month-end. The newlook steel shelters will have a clock, the schedules of the buses and 12 steel seats.
The local body had to refloat the tender after Opposition councillors raised objection against the selection of Adlabs Films Limited, which had quoted Rs 4 crore for each of the four packages. Their argument was that the removal of hoardings would make advertisers shift to bus shelters.
“When the city is attracting huge investsments, it is our duty to provide adequate infrastructure. The beautification drive is an attempt to compete with the best cities in the world,” Chennai corporation commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said.
THE ARTERIAL ROADS OF CHENNAI ARE UNDERGOING A MAKEOVER, WITH GRANITE SLABS REPLACING LOOSE KERBS AS MEDIANS. SAPLINGS ARE BEING PLANTED TO GIVE DIVIDERS A GREEN COVER
As many as 69 roads have been taken up for beautification in the current fiscal year. Work is over on 20 of them Reflective pavement markers or road studs will be anchored on the road surface for lanemarking and delineation for night-time visibility The roads will also have swank bus shelters, which will have a clock, the schedules of the buses and 12 steel seats

CHENNAI’S BEAUTY SECRETS ADORNING THE ROADS: Clerodendron, tabernaemontana and ixora chinensis — the plants to be grown on the medians

TimesofIndia (http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH/2008/07/16&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00400&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T)

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOICH/2008/07/16/4/Img/Pc0040800.jpg

50,000 saplings to be planted along the roads



50,000 saplings to be planted along the roads
Julie Mariappan | TNN

Chennai: If one goes by the official machinery, then the streets of Chennai will have at least 50,000 saplings in the coming months. These will include 40,000 from the forest department and 10,000 from the Chennai Corporation, according to sources in the government.
According to forest department officials, there is a backlog of 24,000 saplings from last year. They could not be planted due to a variety of reasons, including the tussle between the forest department and the Chennai Corporation over the location for the official launch of the plantation scheduled for October last year.
Each of these bodies wanted to outdo the other by having its own launch in Gopalapuram, the residence of chief minister M Karunanidhi. As they locked horns, the plantation drive had to be postponed indefinitely. By the end of the year, they could plant only 15,000 saplings in the city, including in the suburbs. The places where the plantations took place were Tondiarpet High Road and Kolathur in north Chennai, Race Course Road in Guindy, TNHB Flats in Velachery, Kannadasan Nagar and MKB Nagar in Tondiarpet and Pulianthoppe zones respectively, Stanley Road, G K M Colony, Burton Wright Road and Constable Road in Ayanavaram zones.
“This should not happen again. The authorities of both the agencies should work together and find the streets and extend full cooperation in making this massive exercise a successful venture,” said K Ramadoss, president, North Chennai District Exnora.
The two bodies now plan to revive the plantation programme before the onset of monsoon. The saplings the forest department plans to raise include terminalia cattappa (badam), peltophorum or copper pod, bauhinia species (mantharai), calophyllum inophyllum (pinnai), mimusops elengi (magizham), pongamia glabra (pungan) and michelia champaca (senbagam). The saplings are being raised in designated nurseries in Anna Nagar and Velachery.
“We have sent the proposal to the government under the Urban Afforestation Programme. As soon as we get the official nod from the secretariat, we will kickstart the plantation drive, for which necessary arrangements, including installation of tree guards, have already been made,” a senior official in the forest department told The Times of India.
On its part, the Chennai Corporation is planning to plant 10,000 saplings this year. While 2,000 saplings have already been planted across the ten zones, the remaining will be planted, according to officials, “in an unique way.” According to the plan, each street will have an exclusive species: the idea is to have an uniform blooming. “Instead of having a variety, let the streets have a uniform canopy,” says Rajesh Lakhoni, Commissioner of Chennai Corporation.
The saplings that the corporation plans to plant include bauhinia purprea, cassia javanica, delonix regia, peltopho-rum, spathodia companulata, plumaria, ledgerostromea, cassia fistula, tabuebia rosea and cardia sebastiana.


Source:TimesofIndia (http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH/2008/07/16&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00403&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T)

^^Good to hear that.:) But planting alone is not enough. There are several roads in Chennai already with such granite medians but still lacking proper maintenance. Hope these too would have a re-birth under this project.

which is the road shown in the picture above?

courtesy: Tamil Murasu (Dinakaran)

http://tm.dinakaran.co.in/2272008/TM_22-07-08_E1_03-01%20CNI.jpg

சென்னை பரங்கிமலை ஜி.எஸ்.டி. சாலையில் இருந்து வேளச்சேரி வரை ரூ.33 கோடி மதிப்பில் நான்குவழி சாலை அமைக்கும் பணி கடந்த ஒன்றரை ஆண்டாக நடந்து வருகிறது. முதல்கட்டமாக வாணுவம்பேட்டை வரை சாலை அமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. ஜி.எஸ்.டி. சாலையுடன் இணைக்கும் பணிகள் ஜரூராய் நடக்கின்றன. எதிரே தெரிவது ராணுவ பயிற்சி அகடமியின் நுழைவாயில் வளைவு.

Translation: IRR link from GST Road at St. Thomas Mount to Velachery is under construction since 1.5 years at the cost of Rs. 33 crores. In the first phase, the road up to Vanuvampet has been laid. The link to GST road is progressing in a steady pace. The entrance to the officers' training academy is seen in this picture.

http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/782008/DN_07-08-08_E6_17-02%20CNI.jpg

Source:Dinakaran (http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=289374&code=16948)

Monsoon watch

Rains may wash away Velachery projects

Rs 33-Cr Road, Rs 10-Cr Culverts, Rs 1-Cr Subway, Rs 6-Cr Drains — They May All Go Down The Drain If Govt Doesn’t Wake Up

The monsoon is only weeks away. Yet civic works such as repair of roads and desilting of drains have not gathered pace. Starting today, TOI brings you a series on the state of city’s preparedness

Julie Mariappan | TNN

courtesy: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH%2F2008%2F08%2F19&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00400&AppName=1

Chennai: The state government is yet to wake up to the fact that the monsoon is only a few weeks away, considering that it has still not given permission to the public works department to carry out the desilting of the Veerangal canal in Velachery.
If the canal — the flood-water carrier which links Puzhithivakkam municipality with Pallikarnai swamp near Velachery MRTS — is not desilted immediately, low-lying areas like Velachery and Madipakkam would face a deluge during this year’s monsoon as well.
This year, there’s more at stake: the highways department is building the Inner Ring road in Velachery at the cost of Rs 33 crore. The railways is constructing a subway at the cost of Rs 1 crore. The highways and the railways are also building six culverts that will cost close to Rs 10 crore. Above all, the Chennai Corporation on Monday finished laying 3.5-km long stormwater drains in and around Velachery at the cost of Rs 6 crore.
If the Veerangal and canals leading to it are not desilted before the onset of monsoon, all these projects are bound to be washed away or submerged. “We are still waiting for the green signal from the Secretariat for our annual desilting programme,” a PWD official told The Times Of India. Majority of the city’s canals — whose desilting will cost Rs 4 crore — fall in and around Velachery.
“The canal is a perfect picture of neglect, filled with garbage and water hyacinths. These should have been cleared by now. But now it looks like residents will have to float on chunks of thermocol once the rains start. The whole area is going to be flooded,” said A Anandakrishnan, a resident of AGS colony in Velachery.
The 18m wide culverts built by the highways department as part of the Inner Ring Road project connecting Velachery and Grand Southern Trunk Road via Adambakkam Lake, will not serve their purpose during the rains unless the Veerangal odai is desilted. The canal was pushed away and its width reduced to 7.5 m in order to make way for the ring road.
"If the canal is not desilted in time, the embankment of the ring road will face the brunt of monsoon. The authorities have not learnt a lesson from the previous floods. Another drain that was built to carry excess water from Velachery Lake has also not been desilted. It is filled with plastic waste and raw sewage from commercial establishments,” says S Kumararaja, secretary, Federation of Velachery Residents’ Welfare Associations.
The highways department, which has invested a huge amount of money on the IRR project, says it won’t take chances. “In principle, the PWD has to do it. But we are holding talks with the authorities concerned to take up the work immediately, as it would break our embankment,” an officer in charge of the project told TOI.
This 5km stretch of IRR, which had remained unfinished for nearly six years due to delay in land acquisition, was taken up only in 2006. It is expected to be complete by March next year. “We had planned to lay the blue metals before the monsoon, but now it all depends on the desilting,” the officer said.
Similarly, the fate of the MRTS subway and the culverts being built by Southern Railway in Velachery also depends on the desilting. “We will soon meet the PWD officials to discuss flood-alleviation measures in Velachery. They should clear the canals immediately,” a senior MRTS official said.
julie.mariappan@timesgroup.com

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOICH/2008/08/19/4/Img/Pc0040800.jpg

WAITING FOR THE DELUGE: (Clockwise from left) A clogged canal that leads to Veerangal odai; works on subway and ring road in progress

Btw i just noticed that the second chennai bypass bridge over the porur lake looked complete and painting was in progress.

CHENNAI: Even as the rest of the city got flyovers and subways by the dozen, the northern part of Chennai remained neglected. But this part of the city is finally getting its share of development projects.

Work is on to build three railway under bridges (RUBs) and one road over bridge (ROB), with the corporation taking up these projects at an estimated cost of Rs 42.42 crore.

The RUBs at the level crossing at Korukkupet, Red Hills Road-Villivakkam level crossing 2, another one at MC Road near Stanley Medical College, and the ROB at Kathivakkam-Cochrane Basin Road junction are expected to reduce traffic congestion and travel time.

Residents are looking forward to these projects which were announced over two years ago. The cost of the projects has also increased by a few crore rupees. These projects were part of a Rs 217 crore package announced in 2006 by local administration minister M K Stalin.

In 2006, the ROB at Kathivakkam-Cochrane basin road was estimated to cost Rs 10.08 crore, but has now increased to Rs 12.20 crore. The RUB at Villivakkam level crossing 2 was estimated at Rs 11 crore but has now increased to Rs 13.39 crore, and the 9.25 crore RUB at MC Road has increased to Rs 10.55 crore.

Work on the projects has finally begun and is likely to be completed by the end of 2009. Officials said the corporation was proceeding with work on MC Road near Stanley hospital, while the railways was yet to start its work. At the Red Hills-Villivakkam level crossing 2 project, railways has started work, while the corporation has to take up land acquisition.

“The M C Road level crossing is an important link for the whole of North Chennai. Nearly 10,000 people use it and when a goods train passes, the gates are closed for more than half an hour, causing heavy traffic jams,” councillor Suresh Jayakumar said.

Residents say they have been demanding the RUB for nearly 40 years. “If we have to go to the hospital, we have to take a 2 km detour. The subway will help save time in emergencies,” a resident said.

The Cochrane Basin road-Kathivakkam ROB will become an important link for residents of Kathivakkam. “Nearly 5,000 people from this area have to go to work at the Ennore Thermal Station and the harbour. They have to take a train, then walk nearly three km, or take two buses after getting down from the train. Even if one travels by motorcycle, it is 20 km to North Chennai. The ROB will reduce the distance to one km,” Kathivakkam municipal chairman A Murugavel said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/3_new_subways_bridge_for_North_Chennai/articleshow/3382500.cms

http://tm.dinakaran.co.in/2982008/TM_29-08-08-E1-08-03%20CNI.jpg

^^They've even started painting in green a portion of the Ambattur estate stretch of the corridor. It looks marvellous especially when you drive on the surface road between the two elevated corridors. :cheers:

Bypass Phase 2 will be completed before 2008 End.....

Sweet road.
I'm guessing it's a 4 lane expway.
Is the pavement laid down?
How's the road below the expway?

Sweet road.
I'm guessing it's a 4 lane expway.
Is the pavement laid down?
How's the road below the expway?

A long stretch of the elevated bypass passes over the Ambattur Estate 3rd main road.The road below is wide enough but bcoz of the constructions going on it is very very dusty.Although the road below is wide, only a small width
of the road is tarred.It is an interior road and the traffic isn't much.Also one does not have to use this road unless one wants to visit a particular place on this road.

Bypass Phase 2 will be completed before 2008 End.....

2008 End is a very very optimistic deadline.
Mid 2009 would be a realistic one, though my personal take is end 2009

^^The road below is wide enough to mark 4 lanes. Think it should take atleast another year or so to complete as the stretch between Madhuravoil and Ambattur is still incomplete (and also the stretch beyond Pattaravakkam railway line).

http://tm.dinakaran.co.in/2982008/TM_29-08-08-E1-08-03%20CNI.jpg


It is awesome!.. :banana::banana:hoping all big construction projects in chennai city is coming into reality nowadays!.

^^ Same picture featured in dinakaran: http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=296291&code=18072

Caption says: சென்னை அடுத்த மதுரவாயலில் இருந்து புழலுக்கு 100 அடி சாலை அமைக்கப்பட்டு வருகிறது. 13 கி.மீ. நீளமுள்ள இந்த சாலையில், அம்பத்தூர் தொழில் பேட்டை இந்துஸ்தான் போட்டோ பிலிம்ஸ் நிறுவனம் அருகில் இருந்து புழல் வரையில் 3 கி.மீ. தூரத்துக்கு சாலையின் இருபுறமும் மேம்பாலம் அமைக்கப்பட்டு வருகிறது. இந்த சாலையின் மொத்த மதிப்பீடு ரூ.480 கோடி. 2005 மே மாதம் தொடங்கிய பணி, இன்னும் 6 மாதத்தில் முடிவடையும் எனத் தெரிகிறது. இந்த சாலை சென்னை-பெங்களூர் தேசிய நெடுஞ்சாலையையும், சென்னை-கொல்கத்தா தேசிய நெடுஞ்சாலையையும் இணைக்கும் வகையில் அமைக்கப்பட்டு வருகிறது. படம்:பிரபு

Translation: A 100 feet-wide highway is being constructed from Maduravoyal (outskirts of Chennai) to Puzhal. A 3-km stretch of this road from near Hindustan Photo Films Corp to Puzhal is being constructed in the form of two elevated carriageways. It seems like this 480 crore-worth project, started in May 2005, will be completed in six months. The road is meant to connect Chennai-Bangalore and Chennai-Kolkata national highways.

A long stretch of the elevated bypass passes over the Ambattur Estate 3rd main road.The road below is wide enough but bcoz of the constructions going on it is very very dusty.Although the road below is wide, only a small width
of the road is tarred.It is an interior road and the traffic isn't much.Also one does not have to use this road unless one wants to visit a particular place on this road.

Yes currently this road is very bad. However, this road on the ground level is also part of the scope of work for the bypass and will be maintained by the Highways dept in future. It is going to be a 20 m wide road. The traffic on this road is likely to increase once the elevated road is operational since there is access to the elevated road from this road.

Just curious, was that photo taken from a building? the height seems about 10+floors

Just curious, was that photo taken from a building? the height seems about 10+floors

The photo must have been taken from the top of the India Land Tech Park which is under construction. ( 13 floors above the ground)

Chennai city has much more green cover than I thought. Must be the concerted RWH programs to increase the water table level. Some more aggressive planting of trees and shrubs would complete the all round green cover.

Now, if the flat rooftops in many buildings were populated with Solar Panels then the city would become an environmental showcase. Of course we still need to improve infra and cleanliness in public areas. Autos need to be banned and replaced with CNG vehicles (Nano perhaps) and Buses/Cars need to be regulated for pollution. Chennai Metro can take some of the polluting traffic. River cooum needs a complete flush through.

I have added the approximate ORR and bypass road alignments to openstreetmap
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=13.0632&lon=80.1148&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF

I have added the approximate ORR and bypass road alignments to openstreetmap
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=13.0632&lon=80.1148&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF

PlaneMad,

Cool Stuff. You've always given us interesting maps. Can you pl. educate me/us on who has the golden source for these maps and how they did it ? I guess someone must have superimposed on the sattelite imagerymap (from google/wiki ?) to draw such an accurate schematic map .... Is that right ?

Chennai city has much more green cover than I thought. Must be the concerted RWH programs to increase the water table level. Some more aggressive planting of trees and shrubs would complete the all round green cover.

Now, if the flat rooftops in many buildings were populated with Solar Panels then the city would become an environmental showcase. Of course we still need to improve infra and cleanliness in public areas. Autos need to be banned and replaced with CNG vehicles (Nano perhaps) and Buses/Cars need to be regulated for pollution. Chennai Metro can take some of the polluting traffic. River cooum needs a complete flush through.

Yes, those are my thoughts too .. Solar Panels tehcnology is so under utilized in India, at the most they use for coooking/heating. With the advancement in photo-voltaics, they can save upto 40% of the power bill or even upload to the power grid. And, the geo-thermal cooling is almost unheard of .. Esp. in offices & huge layouts they can save tons of airconditioning load. Govt. should mandate that any IT park/commercial malls must have those installed. The demand will spur the supply and who knows, the large-scale production might make them cheaper too. These are no more future technologies and we better wake up to get ahead of the curve.

We also Hydrogen/Fuel Cell cars.. cleaner & renewable.

I wish some millionaire somewhere in Chennai makes a model house that is perfectly self-sustainable ... and Cars running fuel free !! It would be a costly prototype but its a demonstration of what could be done ... thats tangibly beneficial to comon man

PlaneMad,

Cool Stuff. You've always given us interesting maps. Can you pl. educate me/us on who has the golden source for these maps and how they did it ? I guess someone must have superimposed on the sattelite imagerymap (from google/wiki ?) to draw such an accurate schematic map .... Is that right ?

Thanks :cheers:
Pretty much whatever you see was drawn by me by tracing yahoo satellite imagery. Ive ben doing it with some help from the corporation. Anyone can edit the map and its completely open source.
Im looking for help to complete the map and am planning to organise a workshop soon to help others who are interested in contributing. If everyone mapped their area, we would have a completely free detailed map of the city :)

^^Great PlaneMad! Please let us know when you do that!

http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/13/stories/2008091361000400.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/13/images/2008091361000401.jpg

Work on the long pending and much needed widening and improvement works on Medavakkam Main Road, an important arterial road in the southern suburbs of Chennai, has commenced and is expected to completed by the end of 2009.

The 9-km-long road (called Mount-Madipakkam Road in official parlance of the State Highways Department) connects St.Thomas Mount railway station with Velachery Main Road at Medavakkam. A phenomenal growth in traffic owing to the mushrooming of several residential localities along the urban and rural local bodies on this stretch had necessitated improvement works on the arterial road.

With some of the densely populated localities of Pallavaram, Alandur and Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam Municipalities and Madipakkam and Medavakkam village panchayats being close to this road, there was pressure from various groups, including citizens’ groups and youth organisations, to carry out improvement works to ease congestion.

The underground drainage project on this road within the limits of Pallavaram Municipality for about two km had reduced this arterial highway into a stretch of potholes, forcing residents and youth organisations to stage demonstrations. During monsoon, travelling on this stretch between Medavakkam and St. Thomas Mount, especially from Keelkattalai to Madipakkam is a nightmare. Even during peak hours now, it takes a precious amount of time to negotiate this stretch.

Several rounds of inspections were carried out and tenders floated but the work never commenced. However, all the hassles were sorted out recently and work on widening the entire stretch of the road was taken up under a scheme of Chennai Metropolitan Development Plan of the State Highways Department.

Officials told The Hindu that a sum of about Rs. 16 crore has been alloted for the project. The existing two-lane (about 7 metres) would be converted as a four-lane highway (about 16 metres) from Medavakkam and St. Thomas Mount Railway Station. To be funded entirely by the State government, the improvement works include construction of permanent raised medians, strengthening of shoulders and provision of stormwater drains.
Encroachments

The department was still surveying the extent of encroachments that had to be cleared and the area of land that needed to be acquired for the project. The sanctioned amount of Rs.16 crore was allotted only for civil (road laying and provision of other utilities) works, officials added.

Another important component of the project was shifting of utilities, including transformers of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, telephone cables and water pipelines. The Highways Department was currently engaged in discussions with the government agencies concerned, officials said. They hoped to complete the entire project in 15 months. Once completed, it would benefit people travelling by government buses and private vehicles and also ease congestion on Grand Southern Trunk Road and Velachery Main Road, the other arterial roads running parallel to this road.

I have added the approximate ORR and bypass road alignments to openstreetmap
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=13.0632&lon=80.1148&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF

I always wondered about the Bypass road allignment when it touches NH5.

When you look in google map, you can clearly see the road work preparations of the Bypass Road from Madhuravoyil upto puthagaram Rd/surappattu Rd.
But beyond that when it gets close to the NH5, especially after Perambur High/Red Hills Rd - there seems to be a lot of residential and/or factory buildings.

I understand that google map is bit older, but I cannot find any other better arial map...

Did you draw this aliignment based on some information from the construction on site?

If not, can someone from that area shed some light on how the allignment goes? - They sure must have demolished those buildings by now and started the ramp connections to NH5 !!!!

I understand that google map is bit older, but I cannot find any other better arial map...



The aerial shot was taken 1.5 years ago. The latest version of google Earth (you need to download and install the same) shows the date on the status bar, when you zoom in and mouse over the area.

I always wondered about the Bypass road allignment when it touches NH5.

When you look in google map, you can clearly see the road work preparations of the Bypass Road from Madhuravoyil upto puthagaram Rd/surappattu Rd.
But beyond that when it gets close to the NH5, especially after Perambur High/Red Hills Rd - there seems to be a lot of residential and/or factory buildings.

I understand that google map is bit older, but I cannot find any other better arial map...

Did you draw this aliignment based on some information from the construction on site?

If not, can someone from that area shed some light on how the allignment goes? - They sure must have demolished those buildings by now and started the ramp connections to NH5 !!!!
These alignments were taken from the cmda masterplan map, so its pretty accurate to +-500m

source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH/2008/09/30&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00500&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T


Traders oppose acquisition of land in Padi to widen road
Jeeva | TNN

Chennai: Tension is brewing among various residents’ welfare associations and traders’ forums along the Madras-Tirupathi High Road between Padi and Thiruninravur. Reason? The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started to earmarking plots for acquisition of land for expansion of the road. The NHAI has also begun to mark buildings for demolition as part of the project.
The NHAI wants to make it a 200-ft road but most of the traders along the MTH Road have been opposing it saying that there is no need for expanding it beyond 80 feet. Some arterial roads like Anna Salai and Poonamallee High Road themselves are less than 80 feet in width, they say.
On Monday, when traders from several areas, including Padi, Korattur, Ambattur, Thirumullaivoyal, Avadi, Pattabiram and Thiruninravur, resorted to a fast near Ambattur, a large number of representatives of resident welfare associations and residential complexes along the 21-km long stretch of the MTH Road also joined the agitation.
“At present, the width of the road is only about 30 feet and in many places it is just 20 to 25 ft. So expansion of the road is the need of the hour considering the increasing traffic. In fact, no one is opposing the project as such. We only insist that the road can be very well made a four-lane road with 80 ft width just by removing the large number of encroachments on both sides of the road and by acquiring just the minimum land required,’’ said Muthukumar, an office-bearer of a resident welfare association in Avadi.
According to K Mohan, president of the ‘Federation of building owners and traders from Padi to Thiruninravur’, widening the MTH Road to 200 feet will spell doom for more than 20,000 commercial and residential buildings and affect over 50,000 families. More than 60 hospitals, schools and colleges and factories situated along the road will be affected.
“Heavy vehicles proceeding via Maduravoyal and Poonamallee were diverted via Avadi and Ambattur and that has increased traffic congestion on MTH Road. Once the work in progress on the elevated highway between Maduravoyal and Madhavaram is completed, the traffic on MTH Road is expected to ease up. If the authorities think about the future, they can even widen it to 300 feet but can anyone accept it? When they are saying that widening it to 200 feet would minimize accidents, we strongly feel it would only make the road more accident-prone as vehicles would resort to overspeeding. Even crossing the MTH road for pedestrians will be difficult,’’ said Parthasarathy, a shopkeeper in Padi.
Many residents and shopkeepers are agitated and have charged the NHAI with not being transparent and keeping the people in the dark about the project.
NHAI sources said the road would be made six-lane. “We will take over a total of 60-metre width. While 45 metres will be used for the road, the remaining 15 metres will be kept as reserve for future expansion of the road. Those who have right over the land to be acquired will be given the government’s guideline value of the property. Presently we are working on preparing a detailed report to implement the project.’’
jeeva.pugazvendan@timesgroup.com


^^ 200 feet for a 6-lane road??? Isn't that too much?

^^It's always good to have some extra space keeping in mind the future developments in that region.:)

^^ At least 20-30 ft of the road will be clogged with stragglers, parked vehicles, pedestrians, temporary hawkers. So the useful road side will be very less.

BTW, the UPA is contemplating a Bill for land acquisition.
Land Acquisition Bill soon: Sonia (http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200809301957.htm)

Amid a spate of controversies over land acquistion for industrial projects across the country, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said the UPA government has prepared a bill for acquiring land for setting up industries and hoped it will passed in Parliament soon.

"UPA government has prepared a bill for land acquisition. We hope to pass the Bill in Parliament soon", she told a rally here.

Talking about her party's stand, Gandhi said Congress was not against land acquisition for industrial growth but the farmers whose land is taken should be properly compensated and they should also be made partner in projects on the acquired land.

Gandhi did not name any specific project while talking about the land acquisition issue but was apparently referring to Singur and Dadri where such developments have got mired in controversies.

Some Congress leaders recently courted arrest here to protest against inadequate compensation to farmers in lieu of their land for a power project.

^^It's always good to have some extra space keeping in mind the future developments in that region.:)

I'm always so skeptical about leaving some reserve space on the road for future use. In no time, that space will be encroached upon. And a few years down the lane, when its time for expansion, you'll find pucca buildings on this space treating the reserve space as their own and actually further encroaching on the built up road.

I'm always so skeptical about leaving some reserve space on the road for future use. In no time, that space will be encroached upon. And a few years down the lane, when its time for expansion, you'll find pucca buildings on this space treating the reserve space as their own and actually further encroaching on the built up road.

If that's the case why don't they leave the reserved space in the middle.

If that's the case why don't they leave the reserved space in the middle.

That's a very good idea. :) As of now, they can even try landscaping it

I was told that in Moscow and other cities of Russia (in other USSR countries also), there is a middle lane within the central median, which is generally used by ambulance and emergency vehicle and the top guys like Premier and presidents (so as to have a free way and also not disturbing the normal traffic). Only in the intersections, they are given priority, it seems.

If this is really possible our planners can try the same in Delhi first and if workable, can be extended to other state capitals, at least along the arterial roads.

^^In one of the Chinese cities (I don't remember the name), they even have landscaped canals used as medians. The ways in which space between/around roads could be used is practically endless. Least of all, they can be landscaped and/or be used for rain water harvesting. Acquiring and safeguarding them is the question at stake.

Chennai: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is likely to witness a series of protests from building owners and traders against its decision to make the Madras-Tirupathi High Road a 200-ft road.

The federation of traders’ forums, building owners and resident welfare associations from Padi to Thiruninravur along the MTH Road has resolved to take out a procession to the State secretariat and organize a series of public meetings besides resorting to a one-day bandh and road-roko urging the NHAI not to extend the road beyond 80-ft.

Recently, building owners, traders and residents from Padi, Ambattur, Avadi, Pattabiram and Thiruninravur staged a fast protesting the NHAI’s move.

The agitators are now demanding the Ambattur and Avadi municipalities and Thiruninravur town panchayats to withdraw their resolutions extending support to the NHAI’s decision.

Stating that presently the road width is just less than 30 feet and there was no necessity to widen it by more than 50 ft, the traders and the residents said widening the 21-km long stretch of the road up to 200-ft would take away over 20,000 commercial and residential buildings and affect around 50,000 families. More than 60 hospitals, schools, colleges and factories situated along the road will be affected.

Federation president K Mohan on Wednesday appealed to chief minister M Karunanidhi to intervene in the issue and ensure that NHAI did not expand the road beyond 80-ft width.

The public protests became intensified following the NHAI’s marking of lands for acquisition and buildings for demolition last week to expand the road. The NHAI has decided to make the MTH Road as a six-lane road.

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=TOICH&login=default&AW=1223046515828

^^

This is getting ridiculous. WTF. Now the shopkeepers want to stall roads by their asinine reasons. There has to be limit on who decides what. You cant have every tom, dick and harry causing tantrums at every turn. These same traders don't think twice in usurping land, street sidewalks and illegal buildings.

As it is Indian roads barely qualify for international grade traffic. The golden Quad was built with two lanes each way when the norm nowadays is 3 lanes. With India's looming traffic situation, broad roadways are a must if one needs to have smooth traffic flow.

I know the UPA is coming up with a Bill to get land acquisitions, especially after the Tata NANO fiasco with Mamata TNC. They need to hasten this process and pass the Bill immediately. Otherwise we will have umpteen challenges/ court cases, all slowing down decision making and the economy.

^^

This is getting ridiculous. WTF. Now the shopkeepers want to stall roads by their asinine reasons. There has to be limit on who decides what. You cant have every tom, dick and harry causing tantrums at every turn. These same traders don't think twice in usurping land, street sidewalks and illegal buildings.

As it is Indian roads barely qualify for international grade traffic. The golden Quad was built with two lanes each way when the norm nowadays is 3 lanes. With India's looming traffic situation, broad roadways are a must if one needs to have smooth traffic flow.

I know the UPA is coming up with a Bill to get land acquisitions, especially after the Tata NANO fiasco with Mamata TNC. They need to hasten this process and pass the Bill immediately. Otherwise we will have umpteen challenges/ court cases, all slowing down decision making and the economy.

dude, with 200 ft you could build 20 lanes in all. nhai certainly has to explain why they need so much space and also how much they plan to compensate for acquiring land.

and the land acquisition bill that is being planned, is to protect farmers interest - not the industries.

4 lines for BRTS, 2 service lines +6 lines width that will be any how encroached by shops ,parking +6 line for actual traffic + 2 line for future expansion ... SO they need it 200 ft :cheers:

The prank of litigation over land has bedeviled Tamil Nadu for far too long. This cancerous growth has pervaded every pore of the nation. It’s most cantankerous form was seen explicitly in Singur. Even a somnolent centre has now reached for the hot rod to burn the scourge with. The proposal for new laws has not come a day too early. Tamil Nadu should be in the forefront in urging very stringent provisions to give teeth to the laws.

The most fundamental principle to be accepted as an article of faith and enshrined in the law is that, land acquisition is not justiciable

In Singapore, legal remedy lies only in respect of the quantum of compensation. The amount is determined by the Collector. An aggrieved party has a right of appeal to the Appeals Board. The ultimate appeal is to the Court of Appeal.

Where urgency demands there is provision for acquisition, 7 days after notification. The administration is insulated from writs, stay orders and dilatory moves.

Section 31- “The award as made or agreed under the Act or determined on appeal, as the case may be, shall be final and conclusive for the purpose of this Act”.

Section 53-“No suit shall be brought to set aside an award or apportionment under this Act.”

It may be noted that an absolute imperative is the will to invoke the law and to enforce it. “It is not the exact mechanism of the laws that produces great events, but the inner spirit of government”. – Harold Laski. This is not to discount the efficacy of law enforcement. The rule of law is paramount. So is the fear of law. In a different context Laski says “Fear inhibits that temper of accommodation which is the essence of successful politics”. What the Tamil Nadu government needs is the will, the verve and the spine to take decisions and never to resile from them. A vision of the future, together with the resoluteness to carry out policy and programs, alone can endow a government with strength.

Historians delineated modern Europe from medieval, at around the latter part of the 15th century.They listed many characteristics. Among them were the unprecedented power of monarchs through their access to gun powder and cannon. Their authority lost their fetters. Their writ ran to the extremities of their domain. Challenge to authority was wiped out. The elimination of the phenomenon of ‘over mighty subjects’ from the kingdoms of modernizing Europe five centuries ago is of relevance to Tamil Nadu and India at present. The modern version of over mightiness ie, the subject being mightier than the king, can be seen in TN.(1) Saalai mariyal- road blocks (2) Kaala varaiarai atta velai niruththam – indefinite strikes, (3) Saahum varai unna viratham- fast unto death. These three farcical practices are now a daily feature stifling the process of governance.

If land is needed for a public purpose the government is obliged to acquire without demur. If strong arm tactics are resorted to by those who are a law unto themselves, then there is no governance, only abdication. Thiruvaluvar says that “A country should be devoid of caucuses, ruinous enemy within and killer squads; that plague the ruler”- kural 735. In modern nations the constitution vests authority, electoral process selects the ruler for conferment of power and the state machinery along with the coercive apparatus, is handed over as part of a social contract. To Louis XVI the social contract was not inviolable. The price was paid in 1792.

dude, with 200 ft you could build 20 lanes in all. nhai certainly has to explain why they need so much space and also how much they plan to compensate for acquiring land.

and the land acquisition bill that is being planned, is to protect farmers interest - not the industries.

With a handle like dis.agree I cant say much can I. The point is that NHAI planners are not stupid. 200ft is not much when you consider service roads which IMO are required to keep local traffic away from highway traffic. Service roads require 30ft on either side and leaving some room for separation we are now down to 120ft or less. Highway traffic planners need 50ft on each way to leave room for expansion and pull-off lanes. Planting trees and shrubs and sidewalks would take up any slack. So where is the anomaly in this request. I don't understand, since when do traders become experts in traffic planning. Their job is to make money selling goods/services. They are not farmers.

The issue that the traders need to demand if they are losing their land is proper compensation, that is all they can demand. The feasibility or validity of land acquisition is entirely upto the planners.

A few decades back, highway specialists from World Bank advised 4 chains width for highways, ie 264 ft. Such large space would incorporate median, carriageway of 6 to 8 lanes, pull off lanes, service lanes, pavements, shoulders , avenue planting, green cover and burrow areas in under- populated or unpopulated stretches. The modern world is replete with block free arterial highways.

Canada has a population of 31 million. The capital Toronto has 2.5 million while Greater Toronto has 5.5 million. The area of Toronto is 630 sq km. Chennai and Toronto are a study in contrasts. The multi-lane Highway 401, has 6 to 18 lanes adjacent to one another, for a stretch coursing through Greater Toronto. It’s a symbol of visionary thinking and forward planning. The project which was commenced in 1938 was completed in 1968 ie the entire length from East to West. No trader or encroacher ever prescribed the parameters. There is a Japanese saying, when the sun rises the summit glimpses the rays first. Needless to say the myopic sight of the petty trader equips him very poorly.

^^I wish these traders had stopped being so selfish. The road starting from Padi is a real eyesore especially in monsoon season - no well-defined medians, no pavements, sudden sharp curves (as if it were in a mountainous region) - I wonder how they call it a "Highway"! The average width of the road is not more than 30 feet (less than 1/8th of the World Bank standard). With medians, pavements, service roads and others devouring most of the space, as Barrykul rightly pointed out, we would end up with not more than 3 lanes on either side. I even wonder if 200 ft would really be sufficient for this stretch. People should realise this before resorting to a demonstration.

With a handle like dis.agree I cant say much can I. The point is that NHAI planners are not stupid. 200ft is not much when you consider service roads which IMO are required to keep local traffic away from highway traffic. Service roads require 30ft on either side and leaving some room for separation we are now down to 120ft or less. Highway traffic planners need 50ft on each way to leave room for expansion and pull-off lanes. Planting trees and shrubs and sidewalks would take up any slack. So where is the anomaly in this request. I don't understand, since when do traders become experts in traffic planning. Their job is to make money selling goods/services. They are not farmers.

The issue that the traders need to demand if they are losing their land is proper compensation, that is all they can demand. The feasibility or validity of land acquisition is entirely upto the planners.

if it suits you, you would say government officials are stupid. but here they aren't? anyway the point is why do you need a 200 ft road here. this is not a critical road in chennai by any standards. even GST road from kathipara to tambaram is only a 6 lane road or about 100 ft. Chennai - Bangalore road is also about 4-6 lanes and is no more than 80 -100 ft.

width of this road as per cmda master plan 2 is 45 m from IRR (city limits) to CMDA limits. that is about 150 ft. You could look up page 30 of http://www.cmdachennai.gov.in/Volume1_English_PDF/Vol1_Chapter04_Transport.pdf.

^^Ahem! But Mr.Disagree, all the roads that you use for comparison are just our own Chennai roads, and they themselves are facing serious traffic problems. Even the best road of Chennai, the OMR, is scroned upon by critics (please see "Chennai IT Corridor Project" thread). Keeping in mind that we should always aim for international standards, we should start comparing them with world-class highways like the Toronto one (see Keeran's post above). In order for our roads to be a model one in the future, the model that we adopt today should be good enough as well. :)

^^Ahem! But Mr.Disagree, all the roads that you use for comparison are just our own Chennai roads, and they themselves are facing serious traffic problems. Even the best road of Chennai, the OMR, is scroned upon by critics (please see "Chennai IT Corridor Project" thread). Keeping in mind that we should always aim for international standards, we should start comparing them with world-class highways like the Toronto one (see Keeran's post above). In order for our roads to be a model one in the future, the model that we adopt today should be good enough as well. :)

can we then expand them first? and what are the volumes of traffic on these roads and how do they compare with CTH? and i think it corridor in chennai is good enough. it is better than anna salai - the most important commercial road in chennai. that road width can handle lot more traffic than what it currently handles. india is perennially short of capital. so, we need to understand the priorities correctly and it has to be used judiciously.

building 20 lane roads like in the west is not the way forward. there is simply not enough energy to fuel all those cars. you would soon see such highways in the west empty and poorly maintained.

Canada has a population of 31 million. The capital Toronto has 2.5 million while Greater Toronto has 5.5 million.

Your point is well taken, but I just wanted to point out a factual error wrt the capital of Canada. It is Ottawa not Toronto.

While Toronto is the largest city in Canada, Canadians didn't want Toronto to be the capital city but chose Ottawa for security reasons. They were afraid that Americans would attack and capture the capital city easily in the early years of the history of the country while under the British who fought with Americans. I gathered this information from a Canadian while on a visit there.

^^That's a great info! Thanks Arasu.

^^That's a great info! Thanks Arasu.

Thank you, Rasnaboy!

.

Keeran,

You had quoted the right example of 401 in Canada. I am just adding the picture below of 401 which I had took a month back to my Canada trip. I was indeed excited to see the number of lanes and the equal amount of traffic it had despite So many lanes like Fast, Slow, Exit lanes and Shoulders

Click the Photos for Bigger Pictures

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3313/img0558dm0.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0558dm0.jpg)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6566/img0559gg3.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0559gg3.jpg)


Can anyone now think that 200 Ft is not required ???

Keeran,

You had quoted the right example of 401 in Canada. I am just adding the picture below of 401 which I had took a month back to my Canada trip. I was indeed excited to see the number of lanes and the equal amount of traffic it had despite So many lanes like Fast, Slow, Exit lanes and Shoulders

Click the Photos for Bigger Pictures

Can anyone now think that 200 Ft is not required ???

i still do. whenever i see such roads and everytime i travel to usa, i wonder if all the other countries should come together and impose trade restrictions on them.

anyway, all that is not required with market increasing the prices of energy. canada would still be able to continue such energy in-efficient life styles because they have a lot of useful energy but usa does not. this world is a far better place without usa. usa consumes way too much and has not been producing for a long while now. let's stop aping usa or for that matter any of those so-called developed countries that built all that infrastructure only because of availability of cheap oil. remember that this world was an entirely different place for thousands of years & growing slowly. it all changed only in the last 200 years. all this was made possible because of fossil fuels that were created millions of years ago and we would be exhausting them within the next century - less than 300 years since coal & later oil was discovered. although it is common knowledge that these conventional fossil fuels are non-renewable, we all hope that it is in-exhaustible. year after year, we have international agencies such as iea, eia or us-doe publish trash - it's all based on hope & extrapolation.

so when some one says, world bank highway officials said so, i will not take it at face value. it is all based on developed countries which are all wrong & un-sustainable.

Keeran,

You had quoted the right example of 401 in Canada. I am just adding the picture below of 401 which I had took a month back to my Canada trip. I was indeed excited to see the number of lanes and the equal amount of traffic it had despite So many lanes like Fast, Slow, Exit lanes and Shoulders

Click the Photos for Bigger Pictures

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3313/img0558dm0.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0558dm0.jpg)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6566/img0559gg3.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0559gg3.jpg)


Can anyone now think that 200 Ft is not required ???


^^Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.:ohno:

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.:)

i still do. whenever i see such roads and everytime i travel to usa, i wonder if all the other countries should come together and impose trade restrictions on them.

anyway, all that is not required with market increasing the prices of energy. canada would still be able to continue such energy in-efficient life styles because they have a lot of useful energy but usa does not. this world is a far better place without usa. usa consumes way too much and has not been producing for a long while now. let's stop aping usa or for that matter any of those so-called developed countries that built all that infrastructure only because of availability of cheap oil. remember that this world was an entirely different place for thousands of years & growing slowly. it all changed only in the last 200 years. all this was made possible because of fossil fuels that were created millions of years ago and we would be exhausting them within the next century - less than 300 years since coal & later oil was discovered. although it is common knowledge that these conventional fossil fuels are non-renewable, we all hope that it is in-exhaustible. year after year, we have international agencies such as iea, eia or us-doe publish trash - it's all based on hope & extrapolation.

so when some one says, world bank highway officials said so, i will not take it at face value. it is all based on developed countries which are all wrong & un-sustainable.

^^Good points Disagree! I kind of agree with it. You think out of the box which even others tend to overlook sometimes. Thanks. :)

But the issue at stake is not fuel or stuff like that. It's all about the fundamental infrastructure. If we run out of fuel (which we surely will), we would find some alternative sources, say, solar energy, electric energy, hydrogen-powered automobiles, etc. In all cases, the supporting infrastructure will be our same old tarmac. Even if we get back to bullock carts or anything like that, a well-maintained road will be the fundamental requirement. Even if we are disinclined to go for 18 and 20 lanes, in my humble opinion, a modest 6/8 laned road is a must, that too for a busy highway. And Chennai surely deserves those wide roads given its traffic density.

Chennai's vehicle population : 3.2 million
Two-wheelers : 25,00,000
Cars : 4,26,000
Lorries, Vans, Tempos & Trucks : 1,50,000
Autos : 51,000
City Buses : 3,080
EMUs : 78
Passengers using MTC buses : 46,00,000
Passengers using Trains : 0.5 million
New vehicles added to Chennai Roads : 500/day

^^Good points Disagree! I kind of agree with it. You think out of the box which even others tend to overlook sometimes. Thanks. :)

But the issue at stake is not fuel or stuff like that. It's all about the fundamental infrastructure. If we run out of fuel (which we surely will), we would find some alternative sources, say, solar energy, electric energy, hydrogen-powered automobiles, etc. In all cases, the supporting infrastructure will be our same old tarmac. Even if we get back to bullock carts or anything like that, a well-maintained road will be the fundamental requirement. Even if we are disinclined to go for 18 and 20 lanes, in my humble opinion, a modest 6/8 laned road is a must, that too for a busy highway. And Chennai surely deserves those wide roads given its traffic density.

all such renewables are a long way to go. it would be 2 decades before we have a reliable & meaningful contribution from such sources. it is not even clear if we will transition smoothly from fossils to renewables. there is hope that we will transition without a severe depression or a war using nuclear energy but there is a huge resistance. but then to build that next nuclear plant requires 10 years (usa would require even longer). even by indian govt standards (among the most enthusiastic in the world for wanting to build such plants), nuclear energy is expected to contribute only 20% of electricity in 2 decades from now. electricity is itself only a fraction of total energy we consume.

btw, electricity & hydrogen are not energy sources.

i still do. whenever i see such roads and everytime i travel to usa, i wonder if all the other countries should come together and impose trade restrictions on them.

i dis agree this..:ohno:

^^Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.:ohno:

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.:)

Thanks for the accolades. This was one of the rare trips I was not on the driver's seat and hence I waited for more than 30 Minutes to get a view of the full length of the road. I could only take 2 snaps on small slope before the view never appeared again. The middle 3 lanes on each sides are fast lanes. The extreme 3 lanes on each sides are slow lanes(MPS is 100 KMPH for both fast and slow lanes). There are entries from Fast to Slow and From Slow to Fast every 3-4 Km. We had to move to the slow lanes before we exit from the road.

Dia-agree - I agree with the core concepts that US is exhausting much fossil fuel. But My picture was posted to substantiate Keeran's post on 401 Planning. You have to accept that this 401 HWY in Canada is well planned and My photo is a substantiation for that.. Thats it.

In chennai reserving 200 feet is essential for such key stretches. Assume its for more public and unlike in developed countries let this space be used for carrying more public transportation like BRTS.(ORR is planned with 400 Ft ofcourse with 50 ft each side for commercial exploitation)

Road - 3+ 3 Lanes (50 Feet Each Side) = 100 Feet
Service Lanes 15 feet each side = 30 Feet
BRTS/Future Rail Strips 25 feet on each side = 50 Feet
Medians = 10 feet approx
Greeneries/bus stops spaces = 10 Feet approx

If the Width reduce perhaps anyone in India will sacrifice for the BRTS strip and will content with 150 Ft. But on longer run its essential.

all such renewables are a long way to go. it would be 2 decades before we have a reliable & meaningful contribution from such sources. it is not even clear if we will transition smoothly from fossils to renewables. there is hope that we will transition without a severe depression or a war using nuclear energy but there is a huge resistance. but then to build that next nuclear plant requires 10 years (usa would require even longer). even by indian govt standards (among the most enthusiastic in the world for wanting to build such plants), nuclear energy is expected to contribute only 20% of electricity in 2 decades from now. electricity is itself only a fraction of total energy we consume.

btw, electricity & hydrogen are not energy sources.

the transition will indeed take a longtime .. but not for the lack of technology but for the reason of lethargy. it takes a brisk re-structuring at a war-footing pace to save ourselves from the impending energy crisis .. and its next to impossible to have our politicians envision any farther than 2 or 3 years down the road. govt. and folks are generally very myopic and can only think of immediate needs. but this 'fall' out of energy sources is going to wind down us more rapidly than we have ever imagined.

i believe if we mix-match the existing technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal with the other alternatives as CNG, hydrogen fuel cells -- we can leverage them to a great utility value. but it involves certain radical adjustments to our lifestyles ... more than that it requires an extreme direction and commitment to explore, experiment and innovate

no-one is going to reinvent a light bulb because of energy reasons. the rationale is cost of reinventing does not meet the ends. until the day, when the cost of lighting the bulb will exceed all the means.

i think nuclear reactors are overkill. its like torching a farm to kill a weed. i think we got to think small yet powerful... just outsource the power generation to common man and let them upload to the grid.

^^Good shots Madras Fan!

Functionally (and only functionally) it's similar to our Chennai Bypass Road, right? Ours is only 4-laned. Even for the prestigious ORR, we haven't gone beyond 6 lanes.:ohno:

Btw, why don't you upload these photos onto Wikipedia? The photos of Highway 401 currently in the Wikipedia article are not as good as yours.:)

I was travelling on this one last month, man 20 lanes were not enough
I was stuck in traffic and missed the exit.

Chennai: A three-km-long elevated corridor, a part of the Chennai bypass project, is taking shape, with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) having completed about 70% of the work.
According to official sources in the Union road transport ministry, construction of all the 276 pillars on both sides have been completed and work on road portion of the elevated highway is in progress. However, the completion of a road-overbridge at Pattaravakkam, which is a part of the project, is likely to take some more time.
Chennai bypass is an expressway being implemented for a total distance of 32 km to interlink all the four national highways around the city. The first phase of the Rs 405-crore project, linking Grand Trunk Road (NH – 45) along Tambaram with Kolkata High Road (NH -5) along Madhavaram, was completed and inaugurated in April.
And the second phase work on connecting links to Madhuravoyal and Madhavaram via Ambattur, Pattaravakkam, Menambedu and Kathirvedu, are in progress. The elevated corridor which is being constructed from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Pattaravakkam is a major and expensive part of the second phase.
“The project, started in May 2005, is being funded by National Highways Authority of India. Most of the land acquisition for the project has been completed. Tambaram to Maduravoyal, a 19-km long stretch, which was earlier a two-lane road, has now been converted into a four-lane road. The second phase covers a 13-km distance. On its completion, the expressway, a toll road, would reduce traffic congestion on roads in the city limits,” said an official in the ministry.
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without entering the city. However, officials said they couldn’t fix an exact time limit for completion of the project as some of the technical issues are to be sorted out.
ALL ABOUT A ROAD
Chennai bypass is an expressway planned to interlink all the four national highways around the city to decongest traffic within city limits
Project commenced in May 2005
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without touching the city
Cost of the 32-km long Chennai Bypass Project is Rs 405 crore
Second phase of the highway from Madhuravoyal to Madhavaram is in progress
Three-km long elevated highway via Ambattur Industrial Estate is in progress at a cost of Rs 100 crore
Sources:TOI:)

^^ Source : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH/2008/10/15&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00300&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Chennai: A three-km-long elevated corridor, a part of the Chennai bypass project, is taking shape, with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) having completed about 70% of the work.
According to official sources in the Union road transport ministry, construction of all the 276 pillars on both sides have been completed and work on road portion of the elevated highway is in progress. However, the completion of a road-overbridge at Pattaravakkam, which is a part of the project, is likely to take some more time.
Chennai bypass is an expressway being implemented for a total distance of 32 km to interlink all the four national highways around the city. The first phase of the Rs 405-crore project, linking Grand Trunk Road (NH – 45) along Tambaram with Kolkata High Road (NH -5) along Madhavaram, was completed and inaugurated in April.
And the second phase work on connecting links to Madhuravoyal and Madhavaram via Ambattur, Pattaravakkam, Menambedu and Kathirvedu, are in progress. The elevated corridor which is being constructed from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Pattaravakkam is a major and expensive part of the second phase.
“The project, started in May 2005, is being funded by National Highways Authority of India. Most of the land acquisition for the project has been completed. Tambaram to Maduravoyal, a 19-km long stretch, which was earlier a two-lane road, has now been converted into a four-lane road. The second phase covers a 13-km distance. On its completion, the expressway, a toll road, would reduce traffic congestion on roads in the city limits,” said an official in the ministry.
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without entering the city. However, officials said they couldn’t fix an exact time limit for completion of the project as some of the technical issues are to be sorted out.
ALL ABOUT A ROAD
Chennai bypass is an expressway planned to interlink all the four national highways around the city to decongest traffic within city limits
Project commenced in May 2005
On completion of the project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi (NH-45) and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road (NH-4), MTH Road (NH 205) and Kolkata High Road (NH 5) without touching the city
Cost of the 32-km long Chennai Bypass Project is Rs 405 crore
Second phase of the highway from Madhuravoyal to Madhavaram is in progress
Three-km long elevated highway via Ambattur Industrial Estate is in progress at a cost of Rs 100 crore
Sources:TOI:)

Great news Natarajan! Awaiting this for a long time. Thanks.

Thanks Into_salem, for the source.

Btw Natarajan, please include complete source just as Into_salem did in the above post so that one can just click on the link to open the source. :)

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has pla-nned to develop a 62 km long outer ring road connecting Vandalur in the south and Minjur in the north to decongest traffic in the city. CMDA member secretary Vikram Kapur told Deccan Chronicle, “We have pla-nned to develop an outer ring road along the periphery of Chennai Metropolitan Area with the objective of relieving congestion within the city and catalysing even dispersal of urban growth.” The outer ring road will connect four national highways – NH 45 at Vandalur, NH 4 at Nazarathpet, NH 205 at Nemilichery and NH 5 at Nallur – and the Thiruvottiyur Ponneri-Panjetty Road at Minjur covering 62.3 km. The cost for this road with six lanes is estimated to be about Rs 850 crore.

The CMDA would acquire land for the ORR in two phases, Mr Kapur said. The first phase of land acquisition from NH 45 to NH 205 for a length of 29.5 km covering 29 villages had been completed and the second phase of acquisition from NH 205 to TPP Road covering 28 villages was under progress. “We expect the land acquisition to be completed by this year end and execution of the project would begin in 2009,” he added. “This project will help divert traffic emanating from Chennai-Tiruchi road, Chennai-Bangalore road, Chennai-Tiruvallur high road, Chennai-Nellore road and Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panjetty road,” he said.

The member secretary said that a consultancy study for the preparation of a detailed feasibility report (DFR) for the project had been completed. “On getting the state government’s approval of the DFR, the preparation of a detailed project report will be taken up after which execution of the work will begin,” he said.

http://www.deccan.com/chennaichronicle/City/CityNews.asp#Ring%20road%20to%20link%20Vandalur,%20Minjur

Work on converting the Thiruvottiyur- Ponneri-Panchetty Road into a four-lane highway has been dragging on for over two years now forcing vehicles to crawl and causing regular traffic snarls in the northern suburbs of the city. “As the existing road is in a bad condition, the vehicles are moving at a snail’s pace on the 9 km long stretch resulting in traffic jams. Adding to our woes is the unregulated parking of trailers on either side of the road,” Subramani, a resident of Manali New Town, complained.

No action had been taken despite the road blockade staged by the residents last month in protest against the poor road condition, he said. S. Gowri Sekar, a motorcyclist residing at Minjur BDO office area, said, “I used to reach my home in half an hour from the MFL junction at Manali. Now it takes more than one and a half hours for me to travel the same distance.” The government must speed up the work and for the time being relay the existing road to ease the flow of traffic, he added.

The four-lane work was launched in March 2006 as part of the Rs. 309 crore Chennai-Ennore Port connectivity project for container traffic between the ports. The project included laying of a service road, prevention of sea erosion along the Ennore Expressway and strengthening of the Inner Ring Road and Manali Oil Refinery Road. A senior NHAI official told Deccan Chronicle that problems in land acquisition had delayed the implementation of the project.

“We have now called for fresh bids. The new contractor will commence work in January first week and we expect all the works to be completed in two years time,” the official said.
“As a stop gap arrangement, we have allocated Rs 4.5 crore to carry out maintenance work on the damaged roads,” he said.

http://www.deccan.com/chennaichronicle/City/CityNews.asp#4-lane%20project%20hits%20roadblock

10 arterial roads to be widened
Jeeva | TNN

Source: Times of India Chennai, 20/10/2008

Chennai: Vehicle population in the Chennai Metropolitan Area has crossed 32 lakh. Over 1,000 new vehicles are hitting the roads daily.

These choking statistics on multiplying vehicles and dwindling road space have forced the state highways department to widen (four-lane) ten arterial roads in the city outskirts.

Prominent roads including East Coast Road, Mount-Medavakkam High Road and Poonamallee Town Road are to get more breathing space.
Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, Medvakkam-Sholinganallur Road, Vanagaram–Ambattur Road, Thirumazhisai–Tiruvallur Road, Poonamallee Town Road, Madhavaram–Redhills Road and, Ernavoor Toll Gate Road in the suburbs besides a stretch of Poonamallee High Road in the city are also to be widened to ease the traffic congestion.

Official sources say 80% of work on Vandalur–Kelambakkam Road to make it four lane has been completed. However, delay in land acquisition are a bump in the four-laning of many roads including Mount–Medavakkam Road and Madhavaram–Redhills Road where work has commenced.

State highways department plans to make part of East Coast Road – from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai village in Sholinganallur – six-lane road.

Marking of lands in Palavakkam, Eenjambakkam and Neelankarai which need to be acquired for road widening has been completed while the work is yet to be done in Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam and Sozhinganallur areas.

“We need a riding surface of 15 metres for a four-lane road and 30 metres in case of a six-lane road.

But land acquisition, shortage of manpower and lack of co-ordination between highways and revenue departments contribute to the delay in several works,’’ sources said.

It was decided a year ago, officials say, to widen the East Coast Road. But survey and marking of lands have been delayed due to a myriad reasons.

The state government has received a proposal to widen the Poonamallee High Road for half-a-km distance in Aminjikarai area. Two days ago, the highways department removed encroachments along the Cooum river in Aminjikarai to construct a new bridge across the river at a cost of Rs five crore.

10 arterial roads to be widened
Jeeva | TNN

[B]Vandalur-Kelambakkam Road, Medvakkam-Sholinganallur Road, Official sources say 80% of work on Vandalur–Kelambakkam Road to make it four lane has been completed. However, delay in land acquisition are a bump in the four-laning of many roads including Mount–Medavakkam Road and Madhavaram–Redhills Road where work has commenced.

State highways department plans to make part of East Coast Road – from Thiruvanmiyur to Akkarai village in Sholinganallur – six-lane road.



Vandalur-Kelambakkam 4 laning work was in progress since 2006... If completed, it will be an alternate and faster(less traffic) route to IT corridor from Chengalpattu.

ECR - 6 lanes??? from T.vanmiyur?? I think it is impossible... from T.vanmiyur bus terminus to Kottivakkam we can see buildings on both the sides.. even few mid rise buildings are there in RTO.. Then how can they acquire land for 6 lanes + parking + bus stops?!?!

Vandalur-Kelambakkam 4 laning work was in progress since 2006... If completed, it will be an alternate and faster(less traffic) route to IT corridor from Chengalpattu.

ECR - 6 lanes??? from T.vanmiyur?? I think it is impossible... from T.vanmiyur bus terminus to Kottivakkam we can see buildings on both the sides.. even few mid rise buildings are there in RTO.. Then how can they acquire land for 6 lanes + parking + bus stops?!?!

first of all, not many would live in chengalpattu for this road to be widened to reach it corridor. second, even if they did, they would not use this road. kelambakkam is quite south of vandulur. they would either reach omr at thiruporur from chengalpattu or come to tambaram to reach sholing.

this road would be part of orr and would also help people using bypass road to reach ecr/omr & also in the opposite direction.

^^

Accepeted.

Let me correct as suburbs between for Chengalpattu and Tambaram, this link road will useful for connecting to IT corridor!!

Chengalptattu to Siruseri Sipcot via Vandalor/Kelambakkam will be 10KMs more when compared to to Via Thiruporur.

I have seen few corporates buses plying from SIPCOT to Vandalur and the proceed to Chennai byepass/few to Tambaram and few to Chengalpattu.

But that 2 lane road use to carry lots of vehicles...

We never got any such news in the hindu on 16th oct regarding ORR.Any way as said by cmda cheif i think work on ORR will start by next year.There will be complete change in the realestate outlook of chennai once the work of ORR starts and also Omr will not be further given imp by investors because already many residential project r unsold and with the decline in IT sector the Omr's imp will decline once ORR work starts and also starting of Orr will see new hidden areas get developed for example areas in and around kundrathur in west ect and this Orr will also fuel growth of the oragadam belt as it cuts the vandalur oragadam road.

Work on median from Medavakkam on Velachery Main Road begins

In the first phase, the median will be built for a length of five km

The entire stretch till East Tambaram will be covered after April

next year

source:

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/01/stories/2008110159540400.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/01/images/2008110159540401.jpg

TAMBARAM: The State Highways Department has started work on building permanent, raised medians on Velachery Main Road, an important arterial road in the southern suburbs of Chennai, for improving riding conditions and reducing accident rate.

The Rs.2 crore-project is being taken up for a stretch of 5 km between Medavakkam and Mahalakshmi Nagar near Tambaram in the first phase. The road has several improvement works, including widening from two-lanes to four-lanes all along the 21-km-long stretch between Tambaram and Saidapet via Velachery (except certain narrow spots in Selaiyur and Pallikaranai) among others since 1998.

Though slightly raised medians were provided then, they became useless owing to re-laying of roads, which raised the surface on a par with the medians. Due to this, criss-crossing riding of vehicles that climbed over the medians and pedestrians walking across the road in the absence of designated zebra crossings contributed immensely to unsafe riding conditions.

Concern was expressed over the high rate of accidents in the past couple of years in the bi-monthly meetings of the Kancheepuram District Road Safety Council. But it was the accident in Gowrivakkam on June 28 killing two men that speeded up the process of building the medians.

A.R.D.Loganathan, president of Sembakkam Town Panchayat, in whose limits the accident took place, wrote to various government officials and also enclosed media reports about the accident with his letter.

Around the same time, the council met in Kancheepuram and Collector Santhosh K. Misra, its chairman, made it clear to the officials of the Highways Department the need for medians to prevent accidents. Soon, paper work for calling tenders for building the medians were prepared.

The Chennai City Roads Division of the department was entrusted with the task of building the medians. Officials said that in addition to the Kancheepuram Collector’s instructions, they too had, in the past, submitted reports about the need for medians, for which they had a strong case and hence they were able to begin work at the earliest. Initially, the median would be built for a length of five km and after April next year, the entire stretch till East Tambaram would be covered.
Repair works on

Officials also said that they had started repair works on Velachery Main Road and Grand Southern Trunk Road on damaged stretches following the heavy rains. On GST Road, severely damaged spots were near the Chennai Airport, the Kathipara intersection and other places around Tambaram.

On Velachery Main Road, the worst affected spots were in Pallikaranai, Medavakkam, Selaiyur, Kamarajapuram, and East Tambaram. As it was laid three years ago, it was time for routine maintenance, the officials said.

After completion of Padi flyover project, Chennai-Tripathi ( NH-205 ) will be widened from Beginning of 2009 - T.R.Balu

:banana::banana::banana:

http://district.dinamalar.com/districtnews_main.asp?ncat=Chennai&ncat_ta=%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%88#97469

http://epaper.dinamalar.com/DM/DINAMALAR/2008/11/05/photographs/018/05_11_2008_018_002_001.jpg

^^Inauguration by December?

http://epaper.dinamalar.com/DM/DINAMALAR/2008/11/05/photographs/018/05_11_2008_018_002_001.jpg

Hai this is once again taken from India Land Tech Park. I believe it is taken from the terrace or one of the upper floors.

^^Inauguration by December?

The tech Park or the Flyover?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/3005074234_9e9d2232cd.jpg?v=0
:nuts::nuts:

The tech Park or the Flyover?

Sorry, the article says that the flyover (part of Madhuravoyal-Puzhal bypass, in turn a part of Chennai Bypass II) will be completed by december.

^^But Gandharva, I been there recently, and I guess there are quite a few major tasks still pending with the elevated road (such as western side of the flyover at the Ambattur Telephone Exchange junction, the stretch above the Pattaravakkam railway line, the other end of the flyover beyond Ambattur estate [towards Madhuravoyil], etc.). Also I couldn't see any ramps that are supposed to connect MTH road with the flyover. All these will not be finished before december.

^^But Gandharva, I been there recently, and I guess there are quite a few major tasks still pending with the elevated road (such as western side of the flyover at the Ambattur Telephone Exchange junction, the stretch above the Pattaravakkam railway line, the other end of the flyover beyond Ambattur estate [towards Madhuravoyil], etc.). Also I couldn't see any ramps that are supposed to connect MTH road with the flyover. All these will not be finished before december.

I have no idea... Kindly pose this question to the reporter who wrote this :-), as I pass through this stretch rarely.

^^But Gandharva, I been there recently, and I guess there are quite a few major tasks still pending with the elevated road (such as western side of the flyover at the Ambattur Telephone Exchange junction, the stretch above the Pattaravakkam railway line, the other end of the flyover beyond Ambattur estate [towards Madhuravoyil], etc.). Also I couldn't see any ramps that are supposed to connect MTH road with the flyover. All these will not be finished before december.

Here is the current status:
Work has started over the incomplete portion near the telephone exchange. Should be completed in a month. The work near the railway line is under progress

The portion from Ambattur estate to Maduravoyal should not be a problem since almost the whole stretch is on the ground and a bulk of this portion has already been levelled. In fact even service roads on this stretch have become operational ( about one KM from Hindustan photo films to nolambur main road on the eastern side and about 1 KM from Maduravoyal towards Ambattur on the western side).

With regard to the access to Ambatur estate / MTH road, I think that there is no ramp , but the access could be along the ground itself between Hindustan Photofilms & Nolambur main road. There is a gap given in the retainer wall with access from the new service lane on the eastern side.

I think the area with the maximum work to be completed is at Maduravoyal junction itself where the work on the 4 clovers (wings) has just started. That should take some time especially since 2 of the left turns (on the north side of PH road will also be elevated to cross the coovam.

So while the elevated segment in Ambattur industrial estate may be completed in December ( still a very tight call), the road may not be operational since a lot of work has to be done near Maduravoyal.

^^Oh! That's a great news (except for the Madhuravoyil junction)! Many thanks for the detailed update Gopal! :)

So, the total length of the elevated portion is from Pattaravakkam railway line to the southern end of Ambattur Estate, right?

Btw, any update about the portion beyond Pattaravakkam railway line (towards Manali)?

source: Dinamalar, 7/11/2008

Translation:

Thanks to the snail-paced progress of the Velachery-St. Thomas MRTS link, construction of the southern arm of Inner Ring Road (IRR) has been delayed. The 5-km-long southern arm of IRR, planned a few years ago as a link to the GST Road at St. Thomas Mount from Velachery. Shelved initially due to problems in land acquisition and structural design, the project got a new lease of life last year. The project was combined with the proposed MRTS line in a single package. Works on the MRTS link and on the 95-crore IRR started simultaneously. Timely completion of the latter depended on the progress of the former. However, work on the MRTS link has considerably slowed down due to the rather small workforce. Further, the both projects require the construction of major bridges across the Adambakkam lake. Seemingly, no work has started on this section. The MRTS link was originally scheduled for a 2010 inauguration, but this is highly doubtful due to the current situation. The Southern Railways authorities are urged to expedite work on the MRTS link, so that both projects can be completed on time, which would bring relief to the residents in these areas.

http://epaper.dinamalar.com/DM/DINAMALAR/2008/11/07/photographs/101/07_11_2008_101_001_001.jpg

Work on Velachery-Mount MRTS link proceeding at slow pace (left). Right: Near Vanuvampet, iron bars fixed for the erection of piles stick out, standing testimony to the pace of work.

^^ good work gandharva

CHENNAI: Development of NH 205, a critical corridor linking Padi in Chennai to Tirupati, has been put on the fast track with Union Transport Minister T. R. Baalu committing the bureaucracy and local bodies to get the entire highway stretch commissioned in two years.

The Minister, who on Friday convened a meeting of officials from various departments and the chairmen of Ambattur, Tiruninravur, Pattabiram, and Avadi municipalities to discuss bottlenecks at the Chennai end of the 145-km highway, also issued instructions to implement short-term solutions within 30 days, extendable to a maximum of 45 days.

Mr. Baalu was categorical on pushing through land acquisition for the project under any circumstances and refusing to compromise on the width of the highway to less than 50 metres from the project specification of 60 metres. “I urge people affected by the project to extend cooperation keeping the larger interests of the State, and even the nation, in mind.”

The short-term measures will primarily focus on addressing road safety concerns over the spate of accidents on NH 205 by broadening the width by 1.5 metres on either side and improving geometrics on 13 curves.

Police Commissioner of Chennai City (Suburban Area) S. R. Jangid and Additional Commissioner of Traffic in Chennai Sunil Kumar informed that the most accident-prone spots included the Korattur junction, Ambattur Estate bus depot, near Dunlop factory, TI Cycles precincts, Avadi Kamarajar statue, Thirumullavoyal and Pattabiram Market.

The long-term plan is to create a four-lane pathway that will be able to accommodate much more than the current 47,000 passenger car units on the Tiruninravur-Padi stretch of the highway. It was also decided to resolve issues concerning the link roadway branching in from NH 4.

Transport Commissioner C. P. Singh was directed to immediately hold a meeting with police top brass within a week to discuss traffic improvement measures not only in Chennai but across Tamil Nadu. A.Krishnaswamy and C.Kuppusamy, MPs;, E. A. P. Shivaji, B. Ranganathan, MLAs; D. Sudarssanam, Congress Legislative Party Leader; and K. N. Sekar, chairman, Ambattur municipality, participated.

Officials who attended included Highways Secretary K. Allauddin and National Highway Authority of India Members (Technical) S. K. Puri and Ashok Wasson.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/08/stories/2008110854980400.htm

^^impressive. but why the sudden inetrest?

^^Maybe he would have thought of completing it before his tenure gets over.:dunno:

http://epaper.dinamalar.com/DM/DINAMALAR/2008/11/05/photographs/018/05_11_2008_018_002_001.jpg

It Looks like it's flooded at the T intersection on the left.
Why so?

I think it is due to the heavy rains last couple of months. Ambattur IE is an area prone to water stagnation...

^^Do we have a well-planned drainage system along the Chennai Bypass way?

oh, thats one of the tributaries of the estate river

:lol:

^^Oh! That's a great news (except for the Madhuravoyil junction)! Many thanks for the detailed update Gopal! :)

So, the total length of the elevated portion is from Pattaravakkam railway line to the southern end of Ambattur Estate, right?

Btw, any update about the portion beyond Pattaravakkam railway line (towards Manali)?

Just to dampen your happiness a bit, I wish to clarify that the whole project will take some time in completion since the project includes widening / resurfacing of the road below the elevated structure. No work has been started on this front. Moreover they also have a lot of finishing work on the elevated structure like painting etc.

Yes you are right that the elevated portion is from the railway like to the southern end of the estate. From there to Madhuravoyal it is on the surface (about 2.5 to 3 kms) except for one point where it goes over the Nolambur main road.

No idea about the status north of the Patravakkam railway line.

oh, thats one of the tributaries of the estate river

:lol::lol:

Cars in the estate double up as boats during the rains.

^^Do we have a well-planned drainage system along the Chennai Bypass way?

Nope .

I suppose the flooding was the main reason why they opted for an elevated structure :lol::lol::lol: .The people using the road below are anyway used to wading through water.

On a serious note, there is some attempt to provide drainage. Ambattur is normally flooded due to overflow from Ambattur lake. There is some talk of having a wider storm water drain from the entry point of this water into the estate till the railway line along the bypass. Not too sure of the details.

Flooding is not the reason but for want of space for uninterrupted traffic they choose elevated stretch. Its impossible to have access controlled tolled traffic on Ind Estate 3rd Main Road

^^ lol - dude he was joking... :)

@ gopal: do you know what the status of the junction of the Bypass with NH5 is? because unless that junction is also completed the bypass phase 2 won't be usable...

^^ lol - dude he was joking... :)

@ gopal: do you know what the status of the junction of the Bypass with NH5 is? because unless that junction is also completed the bypass phase 2 won't be usable...

this would be a T junction. i do hope they are building atleast a simple flyover there, perhaps along nh5 going north. that alone should help to smoothen traffic since we would not have much traffic turning to nh5 south from bypass. and eventually, another arm from nh5 south for a right turn into this bypass. but i don't remember reading any flyover regarding this. however, at the southern end of this bypass with nh45, they have completed both the arms to make all the turns signal free.

^^ Older news indicates that a trumpet interchange is planned. This would require a minimum of one overpass. Hope they keep this promise. Obviously, the T-junction like at Irumbuliyur would be much better.

^^You mean like the one planned at Koyembedu junction?

^^ No, a trumpet interchange is a kind of three-way junction. What is being planned at Koyambedu is a 4-way partial cloverleaf junction.

^^ lol - dude he was joking... :)

@ gopal: do you know what the status of the junction of the Bypass with NH5 is? because unless that junction is also completed the bypass phase 2 won't be usable...

No news from my side on the status of the junction between the bypass & NH5 - sorry

Here are 2 photos of the end of the elevated structure on the southern side of the Ambattur Industrial Estate

View from south:

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/7941/viewfromsouthpa7.th.jpg (http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=viewfromsouthpa7.jpg)


Chennai tech park can be seen in background

View from north:

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/4163/viewfromnorthea5.th.jpg (http://img397.imageshack.us/my.php?image=viewfromnorthea5.jpg)

^^

Massive KP!

Looks like chennai tech park will open its signature 1 by jan atleast!?
cool pics... if u can try gettin a closer pic of the chennai tech park, it'd be awesome:cheers:

CHENNAI: Development of NH 205, a critical corridor linking Padi in Chennai to Tirupati, has been put on the fast track with Union Transport Minister T. R. Baalu committing the bureaucracy and local bodies to get the entire highway stretch commissioned in two years.

The Minister, who on Friday convened a meeting of officials from various departments and the chairmen of Ambattur, Tiruninravur, Pattabiram, and Avadi municipalities to discuss bottlenecks at the Chennai end of the 145-km highway, also issued instructions to implement short-term solutions within 30 days, extendable to a maximum of 45 days.

Mr. Baalu was categorical on pushing through land acquisition for the project under any circumstances and refusing to compromise on the width of the highway to less than 50 metres from the project specification of 60 metres. “I urge people affected by the project to extend cooperation keeping the larger interests of the State, and even the nation, in mind.”

The short-term measures will primarily focus on addressing road safety concerns over the spate of accidents on NH 205 by broadening the width by 1.5 metres on either side and improving geometrics on 13 curves.

Police Commissioner of Chennai City (Suburban Area) S. R. Jangid and Additional Commissioner of Traffic in Chennai Sunil Kumar informed that the most accident-prone spots included the Korattur junction, Ambattur Estate bus depot, near Dunlop factory, TI Cycles precincts, Avadi Kamarajar statue, Thirumullavoyal and Pattabiram Market.

The long-term plan is to create a four-lane pathway that will be able to accommodate much more than the current 47,000 passenger car units on the Tiruninravur-Padi stretch of the highway. It was also decided to resolve issues concerning the link roadway branching in from NH 4.

Transport Commissioner C. P. Singh was directed to immediately hold a meeting with police top brass within a week to discuss traffic improvement measures not only in Chennai but across Tamil Nadu. A.Krishnaswamy and C.Kuppusamy, MPs;, E. A. P. Shivaji, B. Ranganathan, MLAs; D. Sudarssanam, Congress Legislative Party Leader; and K. N. Sekar, chairman, Ambattur municipality, participated.

Officials who attended included Highways Secretary K. Allauddin and National Highway Authority of India Members (Technical) S. K. Puri and Ashok Wasson.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/08/stories/2008110854980400.htm


Hi everyone :) This is prashanth here... First time at Sky Scraper City for me. BTW as far as Padi - Tirupati road work goes by, I have received unconfirmed news that the work has now been awarded to HCC. Any news on that from you guys??

Welcome prashanth. Keep contributing.

Looks like chennai tech park will open its signature 1 by jan atleast!?
cool pics... if u can try gettin a closer pic of the chennai tech park, it'd be awesome:cheers:

Well. Here goes .....

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1433/chennaitechparkdc7.th.jpg (http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chennaitechparkdc7.jpg)

Difficult to get a clear shot due to the elevated structure of the Bypass in front of the building.

Hi everyone :) This is prashanth here... First time at Sky Scraper City for me. BTW as far as Padi - Tirupati road work goes by, I have received unconfirmed news that the work has now been awarded to HCC. Any news on that from you guys??

Welcome Prashanth !!!

Could you clarify the source of the news ?

@ kpgopal:

great pics!! can you share with us from where you took the first pic (labelled "From South")? is it on the u/c bypass road itself coming from Maduravoyal or some other road? how did you manage to drive there if it is indeed the bypass u/c?!

:)

@ kpgopal:

great pics!! can you share with us from where you took the first pic (labelled "From South")? is it on the u/c bypass road itself coming from Maduravoyal or some other road? how did you manage to drive there if it is indeed the bypass u/c?!

:)

The pic from the south is taken from the service road (on eastern side) for the Chennai bypass (which was laid by HCC about a couple of months ago). You can see the Chennai bypass on the left (red sand being levelled). The service road connects the southern end of the estate (where the elevated part ends) to the nolambur main road .

For your information even stretches of the service road between Nolambur main road and Maduravoyal (on western side ) are completed. In fact lot of vehicles travel all the way from Ambattur industrial Estate to Maduravoyal along the bypass (passing thro' construction area) since it is faster than going through Vanagaram road. However some stretches are bad and they also have to drive through the bed of the coovam ( Thankfully there is no water)

Welcome Prashanth !!!

Could you clarify the source of the news ?

The source is one of the officials from HCC team at Chennai Bye Pass Construction Site. I have not been able to get any concrete or official announcement in this regard. Upon searching the NHAI website, I found that HCC has withdrawn from this particular Project.

http://www.nhai.org/projectphaseIII.htm

So,I am sorry to say that ths news was false:nuts:. Anyhow, is there any update on this. Has the work been awarded? Or when is it expected to be awarded. Further there a lot of tenders which have been called like
Stretch Funding Length Status
Kerala/TN Border - Kanyakumari BOT 56 Tender Called
Tirupati -Tiruthani - Chennai BOT 125.5 Tender Called
Trichy - Karaikudi BOT 100 Tender Called
Coimbatore-Mettupalayam BOT 45 Tender Called
Pondicherry - TN/Pondicherry Border BOT 4 Tender Called
Dindigul-Perigulam-Theni BOT 73 Tender Called

So when are these projects going to be awarded or ave they been already awarded. Any idea???

Well. Here goes .....

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1433/chennaitechparkdc7.th.jpg (http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chennaitechparkdc7.jpg)

Difficult to get a clear shot due to the elevated structure of the Bypass in front of the building.

thanks for the update buds!.. looks like all the 13+3basement levels are complete.... :)
gud pic...

thanks for the update buds!.. looks like all the 13+3basement levels are complete.... :)
gud pic...


How tall is this supposed to be?

thanks for the update buds!.. looks like all the 13+3basement levels are complete.... :)
gud pic...

13+3 was completed in Feb - March itself. It is the facade work thats going on since then. The height is 58 metres from mean sea level

13+3 was completed in Feb - March itself. It is the facade work thats going on since then. The height is 58 metres from mean sea level

oh, okay.. mm.. mabbe they'd be doin some interior works since then along with the facade.. hope to see it opened soon!
@ chennai chap
Its 13 levels and 3 basements for car parking. thats the total no. of levels.

oh, okay.. mm.. mabbe they'd be doin some interior works since then along with the facade.. hope to see it opened soon!
@ chennai chap
Its 13 levels and 3 basements for car parking. thats the total no. of levels.

Thanks!

oh, okay.. mm.. mabbe they'd be doin some interior works since then along with the facade.. hope to see it opened soon!
@ chennai chap
Its 13 levels and 3 basements for car parking. thats the total no. of levels.

whats going on should be electro mechanical work, STP and structure is not completed for second phase, so thats something thing thats going on. Not much of interiors as it is leased on warm shell basis

Yippie !!!!!:banana: :banana: :banana:.

Work has started to widen / resurface the 3rd main road in Ambattur industrial estate ( Below the elevated structure of Chennai Bypass ).

The work has started from the southern side.

^^Great :)

Cross-posting from Chennai Discussions Thread...

“A width of 80 feet will be sufficient for the four-laning project”

CHENNAI: Traders and building owners along the stretch of Chennai-Tiruvallur High Road between Padi and Thiruninravur have despatched hundreds of telegrams to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi raising objections to the road widening project.

A. Mohan, president of the Federation of Traders, Building Owners and Residents between Padi and Thiruninravur, said the body was not against the development of NH 205, which is an important corridor linking Padi to Tirupati. However, the project, being implemented by the National Highways Authority of India, to widen the road to a width of 150 feet would affect about one lakh people, including traders and residents.

“A width of 80 feet would be sufficient for the four-laning project,” Mr. Mohan said. The move to make it a toll road would affect people living in the residential areas along the road from Padi, Ambattur to Pattabiram, Sekkadu and Thiruninravur, he said. “We intend to carry forward the protest as it concerns the livelihood of many traders and would affect residents and visitors to the hospitals along the CTH Road,” Mr.Mohan said.

About 25,000 telegrams have been despatched over the past four days by the Federation members.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/18/stories/2008111859450300.htm

^^ :ohno:

^^Could anyone guess the fate of this project? :dunno:

Just to dampen your happiness a bit, I wish to clarify that the whole project will take some time in completion since the project includes widening / resurfacing of the road below the elevated structure. No work has been started on this front. Moreover they also have a lot of finishing work on the elevated structure like painting etc.

Yes you are right that the elevated portion is from the railway like to the southern end of the estate. From there to Madhuravoyal it is on the surface (about 2.5 to 3 kms) except for one point where it goes over the Nolambur main road.

No idea about the status north of the Patravakkam railway line.
^^
Happen to see the status of the end of the fly over yesterday while traveling on train. There was half way pillars and no sign of any work going on here.
I seriously doubt they will complete it in next 1.5 years.

Velacherry-Palikaranai road widening started.

http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/782008/DN_07-08-08_E6_17-02%20CNI.jpg

dinakaran

Marina beach beautification:

New modern design lamps are installed as the part of it in beach road.

http://tm.dinakaran.com/4122008/TM_4-12-08_E1_03-04%20CNI.jpg

TM

Velacherry-Palikaranai road widening started.

http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/782008/DN_07-08-08_E6_17-02%20CNI.jpg

dinakaran

Arul! I remember seeing similar (or the same) photo posted in one of our threads some 4 or 5 months back. Not sure. Or, are they starting only now? No idea about the current status of this project. :dunno:

Any info on Super Ring Road?? Guess this is the alignment AFAIK
Thiruporur - Thiruvallur - Sriperumbudur - Singaperumal Koil ( guess its near chengalpet)

Marina beach beautification:

New modern design lamps are installed as the part of it in beach road.

http://tm.dinakaran.com/4122008/TM_4-12-08_E1_03-04%20CNI.jpg

TM

What's the idea of having extra arm on top of the actual light. Is it an extension for future Solar Panel addon :)

people people...dnt u all think the sand shud also go off frm the road as part of the beautification...i dnt only mean the beach road bt ALL THE ROADS IN CHENNAI...

people people...dnt u all think the sand shud also go off frm the road as part of the beautification...i dnt only mean the beach road bt ALL THE ROADS IN CHENNAI...

LOL!! Chennai Roads free of sands?!?! Mabbe in 2020??

Guess this will be the Rough (very rough) map of super ring road connecting the industrial hubs in the suburbs made on a google earth map.
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5894/superringroadll2.jpg

^^ Is this part of the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam Industrial belt development announced by the govt a few months ago?

CHENNAI: It was the turn of the export-import trade on Wednesday to express concern over the delay in completion of the Ennore Manali Road Infrastructure Project envisaged to connect the Chennai and Ennore ports.

It covers four major roads in the industrial hub of north Chennai — Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti (TPP) Road, Ennore Expressway, Manali Oil Refinery Road and northern portion of the Inner Ring Road from Madhavaram to Manali.

The delay in its completion has prompted Chennai Trade Co-ordination Committee to demand that the Centre announce a time-frame to address infrastructure and connectivity issue. The CTCC, formed in October, comprises representatives of various chambers of commerce and trade and related bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry and Custom House Agents Association.

Consultative Committee of City Chambers of Commerce chairman Umesh Pujara said: “We would like to know whether the project is still on and if so, the completion date. Further delay will affect the industrial and economic development of the State and the trade would be forced to ship its products from the neighbouring ports at triple the cost. As per the revised plan, the project was to be completed by end-2008,” he said. Though the trade had increased manifold over last five years, the road network continues to remain the same.

Movement of goods hit


Lorry and truck owners have already threatened to go on strike from the midnight of December 20. Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Lorry, Tipper, Trailor, Tanker and Van Owner’s Welfare Committee said it would launch an agitation if the State government did not repair the roads in north Chennai on a war footing.

Representatives of the National Association of Container Freight Stations also said that they would stop evacuation of import containers from the port terminal to all container freight stations from January 10.

LPG supplies delayed


The condition of the TPP Road, which worsened after the recent torrential rain, is affecting business of several industrial units in and around Manali. Residents of New Manali Town said there had been several fatal accidents on the road, which for most part of the day is choked with heavy vehicles.

The road condition is also cited as the reason for the delay in supplies of liquefied petroleum gas to thousands of households served by Indian Oil Corporation in the city. Most of the 80-odd distributors to the bottling plant of IOC in Ennore are able to get only one load (a little over 300 cylinders) every day as against their requirement of at least two.

A senior official of the IOC said the bad roads are coming in the way of the distributors meeting the increased demand for the LPG this time of the year. Some distributors say the time taken for supplying the refills is over ten days, after the mandatory 21-day from the previous supply, with many attached to Ennore.

Maintenance work


Official sources said the contract for maintenance on the TPP Road has been awarded to a contractor, who had also commenced work. However, the recent rain caused the work to stop. Maintenance work, which includes filling up of pot holes, is expected to commence shortly.

The officials said that the police had agreed to regulate traffic on the road, once maintenance work recommenced.

It would be restricted to one lane. Maintenance work is expected to be completed before the end of January 2009.

The tender for improving the TPP Road was called for in 2005 and a Rs.40-crore tender awarded to a company, which also commenced work but due to delay in land acquisition, it could not form the proposed four-lane road. The company’s contract was terminated recently and bids called again.

The land acquisition is in its final stages.

By March 2009, work on the four-lane road with two service roads each on both sides is expected to begin. The project cost now stands at Rs.600 crore.

courtesy

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/11/stories/2008121159150300.htm

The delay in implementing the Chennai Port Ennore Road Connectivity project is resulting in a loss to the tune of Rs 75 lakh a day for various logistics operators.

The project was conceived in 1998 at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore. Irked by the delay, the Trailer Operators Association has decided to go on a strike from December 20 while the Container Freight Station (CFS) operators will go on an indefinite strike from January 10.

The project envisages improvement of a 30 km road network in north Chennai connecting the CFS, which handles containers for the Chennai port. A special purpose vehicle, Chennai-Ennore Port Road Company, was formed in 2003 with the Chennai Port Trust, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Tamil Nadu government as partners. Subsequently, one of the stakeholders in the SPV, the Ennore port, has pulled out from the project. It has come to a standstill due to lack of finance and rehabilitation and settlement of the 1,800 people living in that area. The rehabilitation package is estimated to cost Rs 140 crore.

Speaking to reporters, Umesh M Pujara, president of the Consultative Committee of City Chambers of Commerce, said the delay in execution has hiked the project cost to Rs 600 crore now. The number of vehicles plying on the road has increased to 4,350 a day now compared with 2,050 a few years ago. The industry could have generated Rs 30,000 crore in the last five years if the connectivity was good, he said.

The Chennai Container Terminal at present handles 1,00,000 boxes a month but this could have increased by 60 per cent if the road was in good shape. It would have brought Rs 1,000 crore revenues for the government as the companies pay Rs 2.5 lakh duty on each container.

All India Motor Transport Association secretary R Sugumar said lorry owners were spending Rs 50 lakh a day on fuel, service and maintenance and overtime salaries due to the circuitous route they have to take now.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/chennai-port-road-logistics-firms-losing-rs-75-lakhday-due-to-delay/10/28/342826/

^^ Is this part of the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam Industrial belt development announced by the govt a few months ago?

Probably yes

Despite the importance of completing the long-delayed Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project (EMRIP) for speedier movement of export and import cargoes from the port, there was no sign of this critical project in progress on the ground level, complains a newly floated body called Chennai Trade Coordination Committee (CTCC).
.
EMRIP envisaged the upgradation of nearly 30 km road network in North Chennai with the objective of ushering in a seamless and efficient connectivity from Chennai, Ennore ports to highways which would enhance the import and export trade.

‘Though conceived in 1998 at a cost of Rs 150 crore, the EMRIP did not take off till now for various reasons. Even a special purpose vehicle (SPV) was formed in 2003 with National Highways, Chennai Port Trust, Ennore Port and Tamilnadu government as stake holders and the original estimate was raised to Rs 309,’ said Umesh M Pujara, president of Hindustan Chamber of Commerce.

But now due to inordinate delay in resettlement of project affected families living alongside the Ennore Express Highway and the widening of the road, the EMRIP cost had escalated to Rs 600 crore and was likely to be completed in 2011 instead of 2008-end, he said.

Speaking to newsmen here on Wednesday to express the growing concern of the trade bodies over the neglect of the EMRIP by the government, Pujara said CTCC would not put up with any further delay as infrastructure like road connectivity around Chennai port was critical to boost industrial activity in this region.

Though the project was initially divided into four main segments consisting of Ennore Highway from port to Manali Refinery; from Manali Road to CPCL junction; Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti (TPP) Road from CPCL to Ennore Port; and northern segment of Inner Ring Road from TPP Road until Madhavaram bridge, it was now consolidated and re-tendered as a single project at a cost of Rs 537 crore.

Pujara said CTCC set up by the Chennai Port Trust to facilitate the early commencement of EMRIP has taken up the matter with the Chief Secretary and the stakeholders who were affected by the delay of this road project.

‘But till date no step was taken to at least do the patchwork for covering the potholes on the highway that led to many accidents. Moreover, the people living on either side of the highway are put to several hardships due to bad roads and the slow movement of container trucks,’ he said.

In his briefing, the National Association of Container Freight Stations president V Upendran wondered how could the government neglect such a critical work like EMRIP which would enhance the import and export trade in the region. ‘We have called for a time-bound completion of the road improvement works to decongest the container traffic from and to Chennai port,’ he said.

Further, if there was no response from the government on the EMRIP, he said NACFS would stop the removal of import containers from port terminal to all freight stations from 10 January 2009 for an indefinite period.

Port Contractors Welfare Association president V Balasundaram, Trade Owners Association president S R Raja and All India Motor Transport Congress spokesman Sukumar warned that time was running out and the traders, port workers and trailer drivers would not be able to put up with the logistical nightmare on the Ennore-Manali highway.

http://newstodaynet.com/newsindex.php?id=13023%20&%20section=9

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/18/images/2008121858240301.jpg
SPRUCE-UP: Improvement works being carried out on Mount - Poonamallee Road by the Highways Department, in Chennai.

CHENNAI: The visit of President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Chennai Trade Centre to take part in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January has prompted the State Highways Department to carry out major improvement works on this arterial road leading to the centre situated in Nandambakkam.

Preliminary works have started as part of the improvement works on Mount - Poonamallee Road (State Highway No. 55). Officials of the State Highways Department said that the stretch of this arterial road from the Kathipara intersection till the Manapakkam bridge over the Adyar would be improved to a distance of 2.4 km. The stretch from Kathipara to St. Thomas Hospital, known as Butt Road, is narrow and officials said that it would be widened too, while the existing four-lane carriageway from here till Manapakkam would be converted as a six-lane highway. Elaborating further, the officials said that after widening, road shoulders would be strengthened, pavements provided and proper stormwater drains built.

As part of the preliminary works, boundaries were identified and drains were being shifted.

To widen the road, there was no necessity for land acquisition but encroachments to an extent of about 400 sq.m. on this stretch would be removed. While the cost of road widening work alone would be Rs. 4.25 crore, an additional Rs. 2.35 crore would be spent on constructing drains and pavements .

A couple of high-mast lamps would also be installed and once completed, the entire stretch would receive a facelift, the officials said.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/18/stories/2008121858240300.htm

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Drive+on+12-km+stretch+a+nightmare&artid=VtC9PK69Kxs=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=Oragadam,Tamil+Nadu+Road+Infrastructure+Developmen&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=
The 12-km highway between Oragadam and Sriperumbudur, a fast-growing industrial corridor in the State, is in a shambles due to prolonged neglect and the recent rain.


Singaperumal Koil Road is just sand and rubble on a dangerously uneven surface full of craters and potholes. The stretch is part of State Highway 57 between SP Koil and Sriperumbudur. Since the highway is home to many industrial houses and the Vallakottai Murugan temple, the density of traffic is high. The road offers little motorable space.

Requesting anonymity, bus drivers of MTC route 583 between Tambaram and Sriperumbudur say they experience immense pain while negotiating the stretch.

“In fact, a colleague has developed chronic low back pain,” said a driver. While new routes such as 582 C between Chengelpet and Thiruvallur via the road are introduced, there has been no effort to take up even minimum repairs. ”

The rain that lashed the state last month has left the road absolutely useless, said R Krishnamurthy, a resident of Chennakuppam off Oragadam. “Two wheeler riders are the worst hit.”

To develop the road network to and from Oragadam, a Rs 300-crore road development project was announced and work began in July 2008. The four laning of SP Koil Road was taken up as part of the first phase. During the second stage, the proposal is to upgrade the road to a six-lane highway by 2011. But, the present condition of the road is deplorable. Night travel is unsafe, as there are no road lights.

The condition of the road is pathetic, said a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Development Corporation, which is executing the project. The priority is to make the road traffic worthy.

Please follow this link for alignment drawings, structures etc:

http://nhai.org/Doc/15Dec08/feasibility%20report.zip

^^

I have stitched together the alignment map for the elevated expressway project, from the feasibility report:
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/646/portmadhuravoyalpr3.jpg

^^That's great Gandharva!

Thanks! :)

^^

I have stitched together the alignment map for the elevated expressway project, from the feasibility report:



Very Nice and great effort. Thanks for the pictorial info.

With the Rs 38,500-crore Golden Quadrilateral highway project nearing completion, the government has kicked off a 20,000 km feeder road
project, which is expected to cost Rs 25,000 crore. The project involves upgradation of two-lane road networks connecting towns and villages with the 5,900 km Golden Quadrilateral that links the four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

The bids for the project, which falls under the National Highways Development Programme’s phase IV, will be invited soon, said a senior official with the ministry of road transport, adding the ministry is currently conducting a feasibility study for the project.

The feeder road network will be implemented in four phases of 5,000 km each. The project is expected to be completed by 2013. The government has identified 5,000 km roads in twelve states across the country for the first phase of the project.

About 5,000 km of the project will be implemented under build-operate-transfer mode, where developers recover cost by collecting tolls. The remaining 15,000 km would be built under annuity mode, where developers will receive a guaranteed payment from the government.

The cost of the project has been calculated on the basis of 2005-06 prices. Industry experts feel it will be impossible to complete the project within the budget of Rs 25,000 crore or Rs 1.25 crore per km.

“At today’s rate, the upgradation of two-lane highway will require Rs 2 crore per km, which means the project would require at least Rs 40,000 crore,” said Parvesh Manocha, the head of engineering division at infrastructure consultant Feedback Ventures . Echoing similar views, Subhash Projects and Marketing vice-chairman S C Sethi said: “The project would cost at least Rs 1.5 crore per km.”

Questions are also being raised about the timely implementation of the project as the projects initiated by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal body for the implementation of highway projects, and the ministry of road transport have faced inordinate delays. NHAI could complete just 56% of the targeted projects this fiscal due to delays in land acquisition, environmental issues, litigation, poor performance by contractors and lack of interest shown by bidders in many projects.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Bids_soon_for_5k_km_of_Golden_Quadrilateral_feeder_roads/rssarticleshow/3871806.cms

Any update padi junction flyover inauguration?

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved new projects under the National Highways Development Programme.

These include construction of an 18-km, four-lane elevated road from the Chennai port to Maduravoyal; four/six-laning of the Hyderabad-Vijayawada, and Amritsar-Pathankot sections and four-laning of the Tirupati-Tiruttani-Chennai and Coimbatore-Mettupalayam sections of the National Highway network.

For smooth traffic

The elevated road in Chennai is designed to facilitate smooth flow of traffic to and from the port, particularly in the context of the increasing volume of vehicles handled by the port from the western belt around Sriperumbudur. The density of traffic is expected to go up further with the commissioning of the second container terminal at Dr. Ambedkar Dock. The one-million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) per year facility is slated to become operational in March next.

The elevated road will start near Gate 10 of the port, traverse along the Cooum river bank up to Koyambedu, use the Koyambedu interchange, which is under construction, and again rise as an elevated road near the Koyambedu market to end at Maduravoyal, at the junction of National Highway 4 with the Chennai bypass. For general traffic, entry/exit ramps would be available on Kamarajar Salai (exit), Sivananda Salai (entry), College Road (entry) and Spur Tank Road (exit).

The Rs.1,530-crore project will be implemented on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis, with a concession period of 15 years. The Tamil Nadu government has agreed to carry out land acquisition, and rehabilitation and resettlement of those who will be affected by the project on a 50:50 cost basis with the Chennai port.

Land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement are estimated to cost Rs. 310 crore. The Chennai Port Trust will initially bear this expenditure fully and subsequently the State government will reimburse 50 per cent. The Centre’s share in the project will be limited to providing viability gap funding, which will not exceed 40 per cent of the total cost. The project is estimated to be completed in three years.

Announcing the CCEA decision taken on Friday, Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson P. Chidambaram said the four/six-laning of Hyderabad-Vijayawada section was estimated to cost Rs. 1,603 crore, and the Amritsar-Pathankot section Rs. 851 crore. The projects for four-laning of the Tirupati-Tiruttani-Chennai and Coimbatore-Mettupalayam sections are estimated to cost Rs. 922 crore and Rs. 582 crore.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/27/stories/2008122755881100.htm

Soma-Isolux consortium may bag 2 NHAI projects
Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec. 26 Soma Enterprises-Isolux Corsan consortium may bag two highway widening projects from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The projects are 6-laning of 190-km stretch on Varanasi-Aurangabad section and construction of 18.3 km of 4-lane, elevated road from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal.

Soma-Isolux consortium has sought the lowest viability gap funding (VGF) from NHAI for these two projects, said industry sources.

For the Varanasi-Aurangabad project, Gammon India had also submitted its bid. For the Chennai Port to Maduravoyal project, Maytas was in the race.

NHAI also received bids from three bidders (Reliance, Soma Enterprises-Isolux Corsan and GMR) for another project -- 6-laning of Krishnagiri-Walahjpet section. A top NHAI official declined to comment on the project winner.

“We have received bids for three projects today. The bids have to be studied and a final decision will be taken after the Board approval,” he said.

A few days ago, NHAI had received bids for three more projects — 4-laning of MP/Maharashtra border-Dhule; 6-laning of Pimpalgaon-Nasik-Gonde and widening Kishangarh-Ajmer-Beawar section.

For 4-laning of MP/Maharashtra border-Dhule, consortia in race were -- L&T-Ashoka Buildcon, Maytas-Nagarjuna Construction, HCC-John Laing, and Isolux Corsan-Soma Enterprises. HCC-John Laing consortium is expected to be the winner.

For 6-laning of Pimpalgaon-Nasik-Gonde section, L&T-Ashoka Buildcon, HCC-John Laing, and Isolux Corsan-Soma Enterprises were in race. The bid winner is likely to be L&T-Ashoka Buildcon consortium.

For widening of Kishangarh-Ajmer-Beawar section, Maytas-China Railway 18th Bureau Group, HCC-John Laing, Navinya (a Tata Group company)-Atlantia SpA and Isolux Corsan-Soma Enterprises were the bidders, it is learnt. Navinya-Atlantia SpA consortium is likely to bag the project, say industry sources.

link: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/12/27/stories/2008122751640500.htm

This news says that Chennai-Thirutani-Tirupathi 124KM NH will be 4 laned at cost of 922INR crore and it will be done in 3 years.

And the project has been approved by central gvt

http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=335115&code=16742

^^Is the MTH Road (Madras-Thiruvallur High Road) part of this Chennai-Thirutthani-Thirupathi Road?

yeah but i think that expansion would start beyond Ambattur O.T. From Thirumangalam jn to Ambattur, expansion was proposed by Chennai Corporation. So i believe it will not be part of NHAI project.

This news says that Chennai-Thirutani-Tirupathi 124KM NH will be 4 laned at cost of 922INR crore and it will be done in 3 years.

And the project has been approved by central gvt

http://dkn.dinakaran.co.in/showxml.aspx?id=335115&code=16742



Hi

I wanted to know if there is any proposals for new bypass road in thiruvallur, if so is it approved and i wanted to know more details abt it.

if any one has some details on this pls mail me.

my id is Praveen.ravilla@gmail.com


thanks in advance

hi arul

i wanted to know some info on tiruvallur bypass road, i hope you know abt this kindly provide me the details. or just tell me who is the right person to contac for this.

i exactly want the route map of Tiruvallur bypass which is proposed

^^

praveen, sorry i dont have any info. about ur question.

ANd this is the forum just to share about the planned/on-going projects and this is not the place to get any official information.

Reprieve for Maduravoyal residents soon


Portion of road-widening project will be completed in a few weeks

END TO DAILY BATTLE? Motorists vying for space with heavy vehicles on the narrow stretch of Poonamallee High Road near Maduravoyal may soon get a respite with the road-widening work under way.

CHENNAI: Residents of Maduravoyal, who have been enduring bumpy rides on the stretch of Poonamallee High Road between Koyambedu and Maduravoyal, may soon get a reprieve as a portion of the road widening project will be completed by mid-January.

Long waits in inching traffic on the stretch has been a daily ordeal for motorists for over four years now. It takes about an hour and a half to cross the stretch, which otherwise is a 20-minute ride.

Residents said that besides the vehicles from adjacent localities such as Nerkundram and Koyambedu, several heavy vehicles used National Highway-4 road, which connects the city with Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai.

V. Rajan, a resident of Nerkundram, said that though traffic congestion had decreased slightly on the stretch in the past few days, the vehicle pile up still remained unpredictable, particularly during rush hour. Manoeuvring the stretch was a tough task during nights as the arterial road was bereft of streetlights.

Motorists had to vie for space on the narrow road or ply on the bumpy stretches due to the delay in the road widening work taken up by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), he said.

However, the work, which was resumed a month ago, had come as a ray of hope for the residents.

A police personnel regulating traffic said that it was difficult to handle heavy traffic on the dusty stretch. Though the personnel had been provided face masks, not many used them as they were “uncomfortable to wear.”

Once the projects were completed, the problems pertaining to choking traffic would be minimised, he said.

Several Metropolitan Transport Corporation staff members were deployed on the stretch between Koyambedu and Maduravoyal to regulate traffic for free movement of MTC buses.

D. Jeganraj, an MTC trainee deployed on the junction near the upcoming grade separator as part of Tambaram and Maduravoyal bypass project, said that about 10 trainees had been deployed for manning the traffic on shift basis. “I help commuters board the buses on the busy junction during rush hour. I regulate the traffic after 11.30 a.m. to facilitate movement of buses without much delay,” he said.

A NHAI official said that the work to widen a portion of the road would be completed in a fortnight. The Rs.49-crore four-laning project between Maduravoyal and Koyambedu covering a distance of 4 km would be completed by March. Work on the other side of the stretch would commence once the Chennai Metrowater laid pipeline transporting water from Chembarambakkam water treatment plant to the existing network in Koyambedu.

A survey was under way to convert the stretch of Poonamallee High Road from Maduravoyal to Sriperumbudur as either six or eight lane road, the official said.

Link: http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/02/stories/2009010259180400.htm

A new service lane for the chennai bypass has been opened between Porur & the toll plaza (with access near the toll plaza) on the by pass. By this the commute time between Porur and Madhuravoyal is now less than 5 minutes.

Must thank the PM though for this improvement. The work was completed at record speed to facilitate his smooth travel to Madhuravoyal for the foundation stone ceremeny of the port - madhuravoyal elevated corridor.

Photo of the service lane is given below.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7153/bypassservicelaneta3.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bypassservicelaneta3.jpg)

source: http://tm.dinakaran.com/showxml.aspx?id=172110&code=16954

http://tm.dinakaran.com/2012009%5CTM_20-01-09_E1_08-01%20CNI.jpg

^^ WoW. Grand View...

Is that taken from India Land Tech park???

Is that taken from India Land Tech park???

Looks like it. What you see is the southern end of the elevated structure.

One new addition over the last week. The service road has become operational. Hence it is now possible to go all the way from Ambattur industrial estate to Poonamalee high road on the new service road of the Bypass.

Looks like it. What you see is the southern end of the elevated structure.

One new addition over the last week. The service road has become operational. Hence it is now possible to go all the way from Ambattur industrial estate to Poonamalee high road on the new service road of the Bypass.

Are there exit and entry ramps? it can double up as expressway if done so

CHENNAI: The construction of a six-lane highway on the Chennai-Tada section of NH-5 will begin next week, according to a press release.

This was announced by Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu during his review of the ongoing National Highway Development Projects (NHDP) in Tamil Nadu in Chennai on Friday.

The Minister also informed that the entire 342-km Golden Quadrilateral in the State has been completed and the same would be widened to six lanes along with 93 km of Tambaram-Tindivanam section of NH-45 under Phase-V of NHDP.

He added that out of 756 km under the North-South corridor scheme, a stretch of 97.4 km has already been completed and the work for widening 576.6 km is going on.

About 650 km would be completed by March 2009 and the entire work would be completed by June 2009.

Under the NHDP Phase-III, 1465 km would be constructed in the State, out of which work is under way in 527 km and the remaining 938 km is under various stages of implementation. For the Tirupati-Tiruthani section (NH-205) and Coimbatore-Mettupalayam (NH-67) the bids are due on Januray 28. Construction of four lanes in the Tindivanam-Tiruchi-Madurai sections of NH-45 and NH-45B has almost been completed and the completed sections have been opened to traffic, the Minister added.

In all, about 930-km length is expected to be completed by March-April 2009.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/24/stories/2009012453680500.htm

A new service lane for the chennai bypass has been opened between Porur & the toll plaza (with access near the toll plaza) on the by pass. By this the commute time between Porur and Madhuravoyal is now less than 5 minutes.

Must thank the PM though for this improvement. The work was completed at record speed to facilitate his smooth travel to Madhuravoyal for the foundation stone ceremeny of the port - madhuravoyal elevated corridor.



(From 26/1/2009 Deccan Chronicle, Chennai): Looks like the service road till telephone exchange junction (CTH Road) is going to be opening today:

http://dc-epaper.com/DC/DCC/2009/01/26/article/005/26_01_2009_005_001.jpg

(From 26/1/2009 Deccan Chronicle, Chennai): Looks like the service road till telephone exchange junction (CTH Road) is going to be opening today:


Service road from Madhuravoyal to Ambattur Telephone exchange has been operational of a couple of weeks now. The official opening is being done now.

On second thoughts, do we need to have an opening ceremony for a service lane??? :nuts:. Looks like they have given up any chance of inaugurating the elevated section of the Chennai Bypass before the elections. So they are at least taking credit for opening the service road.

^^Trying to be in the limelight, as much as they can... :lol:

Project taken up on public-private partnership

CHENNAI: Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu on Monday laid the foundation for six-laning of the 43.4-km Chennai-Tada road, which is expected to be completed in three years.

Participating in a foundation to mark the stone-laying function and also the inauguration of a service road from Maduravoyal to the Ambattur BSNL junction, he said the Rs.418.75-crore project was being taken up by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on public-private partnership.

NHAI officials said that L&T Chennai-Tada Tollway Ltd had been awarded the project and work was expected to start in a week. The project will have six flyovers, a major bridge, a minor bridge, two overpasses, four vehicular underpasses, 15 pedestrian underpasses and two truck lay-bys. Apart from this, widening and reconstruction of 80 culverts will be taken up.

Mr. Baalu said the existing four-lane corridor was being widened to six lanes along with the construction of service roads. Its proximity to Chennai and Ennore ports will help trade and commerce.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/27/stories/2009012759180700.htm

^^ considering that the Chennai-Tada section is already 4-laned, with bridges and flyovers already 6-laned, why should this project take 3 years to complete?

is this a new alignment or am i missing something?

koyambedu - maduravoyal is 4 km and has taken 3+ years.....

^^ considering that the Chennai-Tada section is already 4-laned, with bridges and flyovers already 6-laned, why should this project take 3 years to complete?

is this a new alignment or am i missing something?

this is why:


The project will have six flyovers, a major bridge, a minor bridge, two overpasses, four vehicular underpasses, 15 pedestrian underpasses and two truck lay-bys. Apart from this, widening and reconstruction of 80 culverts will be taken up.

^^ yes, i read that, but like i said in my post, flyovers and bridges are already completed & 6-laned..

Road of dust: The Taramani- Link Road which has been left starving for refurbishing. —

CHENNAI: Road-users undergo an ordeal every day when they take the Taramani Link Road in south Chennai. The road, which connects Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Taramani and Velachery, is ridden with potholes and its surface is uneven in many places.

Though the Highways Department has filled some potholes and re-laid a few of the damaged stretches recently that had not made the 3.6-km-long busy road safe for the users. Accidents are not uncommon on this road, whose width shrinks at various spots and where rash driving and overspeeding are major problems.

The road is narrow and unable to cope with the volume of traffic, which has increased following the development of Velachery and neighbouring localities. There has also been a significant increase in the number of commercial establishments, many of whose customers park vehicles haphazardly.

Blacktopping is limited to a width of only nine metres on the road as encroachments take up space at many places on both sides.

K. Pandian, a resident of Taramani, said the road, when it was planned, had a width of 100 feet (about 30 metres) but now it has reduced drastically due to encroachments. “A lot of commercial and residential buildings have come up. This is the case particularly on the Taramani side. A number of automobile workshops have come up on both sides and they have encroached upon road margins by parking vehicles. A project to make the road a six-lane highway has not yet started.”

Officials have been talking about the proposed road widening for sometime now, but there has been little action. The time taken to launch the project has led to more of the space meant for the project being taken over by the encroachments. Apart from encroachments, one of the main problems on the stretch is the parking of vehicles, particularly autorickshaws.

The problem is acute near the Vijaynagar bus stand, where share autorickshaws crowd in around the bus stop. Recently, an autorickshaw stand had also been established. This is often the cause of traffic snarls during rush hour.

S. Jothi, a resident of Baby Nagar, said traffic had increased on the Taramani Link Road ever since the opening of the IT corridor. “The road near the Institute of Road Transport gets flooded during the rain but the Highways Department is increasing the height of the road at another spot,” she added.

What is irking many of the users is the pace at which even the repair works are being carried out. They also complain about the lack of policing, traffic signals or pedestrian crossings. While motorists complain about jay walking, pedestrians say they have no option but to dart across in the absence of any facilities for them.

Official sources in the Highways Department said that the height of the road was being increased by one foot along a stretch of about 700 meters. “The work has been going on for three days now and will be completed in about five days. We are using wet mix instead of red earth and there will be a bituminous tar topping along that stretch,” he said.

Work on the long pending six-laning of the road is expected to begin by March this year and be completed in 15 months. An official of the Highways Department said that till date a total of Rs.4.90 lakh had been distributed as compensation to 83 persons under a programme to assist the project-affected persons.

The proposed road will have a width of 30.5 meters with a median, three lanes on both sides, drains, cycle track and footpaths. Funds for the project are being sought from the World Bank as part of Third Tamil Nadu Urban Development project.


http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/31/stories/2009013158890300.htm

The process to acquire lands wherever required is under way on Koladi Road

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/03/images/2009020358440301.jpg
WAY OUT: Scenes of traffic congestion on the Koladi Road could soon be a thing of the past with the facility set to be widened.

CHENNAI: Motorists vying for space on the narrow stretches of Koladi Road, which connects Ambattur with Thiruverkadu, may soon get a respite as a project to widen the road has been initiated.

The project, being implemented by Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project (TNUDP), envisages developing the road into a two-lane facility to ensure smooth flow of traffic and better connectivity.

R.Prasad of Vijayalakshmipuram said the Koladi Road, which branches out from the Ambattur-Vanagaram Main Road, is used by hundreds of residents of Ambattur and Thirumullaivoyal to reach Thiruverkadu.

Although several of its stretches were narrow and in a bad condition, motorists preferred the road as it was a short route to Thiruverkadu and Poonamallee. Using the road during night hours and rainy season was an arduous task due to inadequate street-lighting and the damaged stretches, he said.

Residents said that they have to otherwise take a detour via Maduravoyal or Avadi to reach Thiruverkadu and Poonamallee.

Uma Kannan, Ward 32 councillor of Ambattur Municipality, said that residents of three wards in Ambattur, including Athipattu, Ayapakkam and Kuppam, would benefit from the project.

A TNUDP official said the road widening project would be taken up with World Bank assistance. The existing 3.7 metre road would be developed into a seven metre two-lane road for a stretch of seven kms. Construction of stormwater drain also formed part of the improvement works.

Tender for the Rs.32 crore worth project would be floated by March. The work order is expected to be issued in May and project completed by September next year, the official added.

While the World Bank funding would be utilised for the civil works of the project, the State government would bear the other expenditure, including the land acquisition cost.

The process to acquire lands wherever required is under way on Koladi Road that belongs to the Highways Department. The issues related to resettlement of the people would also be dealt with as part of the project, the official said.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/03/stories/2009020358440300.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The gantry girders will also display the helpline number of the Chennai Corporation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation started setting up gantry girders and traffic signs on more roads as part of its initiative to provide a facelift to the city.

It had already installed such facilities at 82 locations at the cost of Rs.50 lakh, including Sardar Patel Road, Radhakrishnan Road, Nungambakkam High Road, Anna Nagar Second Avenue, Santhome High Road and East Coast Road.

Chennai Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said they were part of 115 locations identified. At the remaining locations, the facilities would be ready shortly.

The four-foot-wide gantry girders will display the directions to important places in the city.

On Monday, Mr. Lakhoni visited Luz Corner in Mylapore where the gantry girders have been set up recently. The gantry girders will also display the helpline number - 1913 - to help the public inform corporation authorities about their grievances.

“People can use the number to book complaints and to make use of any services offered by the Chennai Corporation. The corporation staff can be contacted all the time using this number,” said Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni.

The three-foot-wide upper portion of the gantry girder will have the directions of places displayed in English and Tamil, he said.

No commercial advertisements will be made in the facility, he said.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/03/stories/2009020359210300.htm

CHENNAI: No more potholes or digging by service providers, no more sewage on the roads or flooding or the hassle of relaying. Can you imagine
such roads? To top it all, there will be space for cyclists, pedestrians, street lights, greenery and benches by the roadside.

Seems unbelievable but the state thinks it is possible. Valasarawalkam and Alandur in the outskirts of the city could have such roads in place, if the state's ambitious Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Project (TURIP) shapes up as conceived.

With the government giving the go-ahead to the municipal administration department to appoint consultants for TURIP, 10 urban local bodies -- seven municipalities and three corporations -- in the state will soon get detailed designs for such futuristic road systems shortly. If successful, the concept could save hundreds of crores of rupees spent on relaying roads from time to time.

Finance minister K Anbazhagan had announced in the 2008-09 budget that TURIP would be implemented from this fiscal with a view to upgrading urban roads in the state to international standards at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore (a year) with multiple sources of financing, including a sum of Rs 147 crore due as arrears of funds devolved from the state government.

As an innovative funding mechanism, a portion from the assigned revenue payable to corporations and municipalities on account of surcharge on stamp duty, and if possible from motor vehicle tax, and bonds to be issued by the TURIF (Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Fund) will also be utilised, official sources said.

"TURIP will be taken up in municipalities and corporation areas where underground drainage (UGD) system has been completed,'' says Dr M S Srinivasan, advisor, TNUIFSL (Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited). As UGD damages roads, fully or partially, the government has chosen urban bodies with a complete UGD system.

Officials plan to try out the new system in the outskirts of the city before bringing the concept to the metropolis.

Under TURIP, the contractor and consultant would both have responsibility of maintenance for five years, as it is in the case of national highways. By this arrangement, any blame game between consultants and contractors on whether the design had been given proper shape or there was any flaw in the design itself can be avoided, municipal administration officials said.

Each of the 10 local bodies will have a consultant each to prepare the detailed design. During the first five years when the contractor will maintain the road, the consultant will oversee and certify the work.

Apart from relocation of electric poles and telephone posts, ducting of various cables will be done along the road or criss-cross it, without any need to dig the roads again. After five years, the urban local bodies would take over their maintenance, as they would have acquired sufficient knowledge in maintenance of advanced roads by then, municipal officials said. Tenders inviting consultants would be floated in a week, officials added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Chennai/TNs_dream_urban_road_project_to_kick-start_soon/articleshow/4090240.cms

Rs.9-crore proposal sent to government

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/07/images/2009020761000401.jpg
Improvement in store: The Palar River causeway beyond Kalpakkam is among the facilities that would be strengthened. —

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company has proposed to strengthen several old bridges and culverts on the 113-km-long East Coast Road from Chennai to Puducherry.

A proposal about the works, estimated to cost Rs.9 crore, has been sent to the State government for approval. The company has sought funds from the government as the facilities have been in existence much before the road was laid.

A senior official of the TNRDC told The Hindu that the facilities were old and had undergone considerable wear and tear. The bridges at Muttukadu and Thenpakkam are nearly 40 years old and need to be reinforced. Expansion joints would be replaced, epoxy mortar filling would have to be done to cover the gaps and protective paint coating given. Both the bridges have been constructed over the backwaters. The bridge at Muttukadu is 320 mts long and the one at Thenpakkam is 394 mts long.

The Palar river causeway beyond Kalpakkam would also be strengthened as part of the proposal. The official added that 15 moderately distressed bridges that are not so old and 15 culverts would also be renovated. The pipe culverts would be replaced with box culverts.

On its plans to four-lane the ECR, the official said the project consultant had recently submitted a report to them and that it was being studied. The project proposes inclusion of service lanes, utility corridor and construction of medians. It would also involve some land acquisition.

“We are planning to go about it in stages. We are thinking of geometric correction of bends. There are 22 bends and we want to increase the radius of curves to reduce the number of accidents. We are extracting the details from the consultant’s report and studying that,” he added. The ECR road has been existence since 1998 and it became a toll road in 2002.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/07/stories/2009020761000400.htm

Mayor inaugurated a total of 553 new street-lights

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/07/images/2009020760140301.jpg
MORE LIGHT: New street lights installed on the CSIR Road in Taramani on Thursday. —

CHENNAI: Chennai Corporation has installed 1,500 new street lights in different localities of north and south Chennai at the cost of Rs.2.34 crore, according to Mayor M. Subramanian.

He was speaking on Friday after commissioning the new street-lights in the Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar area.

According to the Mayor, the civic body has in the current financial year installed 12,220 street lights at a total cost of Rs.19.19 crore. It had also installed 26 high-mast lamps at a cost of Rs.2.93 crore.

In south Chennai 3,999 new lamp-posts were erected and in north Chennai 3,531, he said.

Other works

He listed out other infrastructure development work pertaining to street-lights, including the laying of underground cable for a length of 372 km, 350 solar lights, 746 self-timer devices and 26 high-mast lights.

The Mayor said the Corporation was procuring only branded electrical fixtures for street-lights.

As a result, frequent defects which had occurred in the functioning of the street-lights, were minimised, he said.

On Thursday, Mr. Subramanian switched on the newly installed street-lights on C.S.I.R Road, Taramani. Several IT firms and reputed research institutions are located on the road, which serves as a link between Velachery and Rajiv Gandhi Salai.

At the function on Thursday, the Mayor inaugurated a total of 553 new street-lights, including those in several parts of south Chennai. They include Gandhi Road in Velachery, M.G.R. Road in Thiruvanmiyur, Karpagam Avenue in Adyar and St. Mary’s Road in Alwarpet.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/07/stories/2009020760140300.htm

yeah but i think that expansion would start beyond Ambattur O.T. From Thirumangalam jn to Ambattur, expansion was proposed by Chennai Corporation. So i believe it will not be part of NHAI project.

Hi Krishna

do you have any details about thiruvallur bye pass if so pls send it to me at Praveen.Ravilla@gmail.com

^^ I don't have any details particular to that by-pass. But i think i saw a tender for road expansion between tiruttani and tiruvallur a couple of months back.

Chennai part of govt plan to upgrade urban roads

Jayaraj Sivan | TNN

Chennai: About 1,200 kmlength of Chennai roads, which do not have proper drainage facilities and footpaths now, could present a different story in the coming three years as the state government has decided to include the state capital, along with four other corporations and seven municipalities, in the first phase of the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Project. The project has an annual budget of Rs 1,000 crore. The government has given administrative sanction for appointing consultants at a cost of Rs 32.5 crore to design, supervise and manage these projects across the state. The state government is planning to develop in a phased manner, over the coming ten years, all roads in corporations and municipalities.

Apart from Chennai, the government has shortlisted Tiruchi, Tirunelveli, Tirupur and Madurai corporations and Alandur, Mayiladuthurai, Karur, Inam Karur, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur and Valasaravakkam municipalities for implementing road upgradation works such as widening and improving road quality, ducting, and laying drainage and sewerage lines.

“Since Chennai’s requirements are different, laying drainage will be our priority. The city has 2,800 km of roads, out of which about 700 km are small roads that do not need drainage facility. Of the balance 2,100 km, about 900 km of roads have proper drainage. The balance 1,200 km will be partly covered under this scheme,” a senior official said. The Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd has initiated the tender process for appointing consultants.

The consultants will submit their reports before February, 2010, and the actual works would be taken up only in the financial year 2010-2011, said an official.

From TOI

^^
http://dkn.dinakaran.com/1322009/Dipr%20814%20_%2027%20x%202.jpg

CHENNAI: In an effort to provide additional space to vehicle users, the Chennai Corporation has embarked on a drive to blacktop margins of around 75 km of roads in the city.

The unused space between the footpaths and the road is being filled with tar topping. This is being done only in places where there is clay and water percolation is impossible.

Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni told The Hindu that of the 300 km of bus routes, 75 km was targeted and 30 km completed till date. “We are not disturbing the pavements in any way. In places where streetlights were on roads they have been shifted inside the footpaths.”

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/14/stories/2009021450010100.htm

Well finally a good move. Most streets in Chennai and rest of India are filled with dirt and debris, practically closing of a usable lane for traffic. Whether this was done by intention or not, the end result is that roads look unfinished, traffic avoids the lane. With increase of traffic we need the extra lane for faster flows. The foot paths are another thing awaiting a fix. None of them are usable. Sometime ago, I believe during Amma reign footpaths were done with paver blocks. Problem is that the footpaths were not properly leveled and compacted. Today the paver blocks are uneven and peeling of. The side walks even with proper paving would still be unusable. Each of them sits up very high from the road level. The entry ways into buildings cause one to go up and down every few feet. No one has thought about how these end products would be used by the public, which is frightening to say the least. This from a civilization which has been world dominant for several thousand of years, e.g. Indus valley civilization had good roads and pavements with proper drainage.

CHENNAI: In an effort to provide additional space to vehicle users, the Chennai Corporation has embarked on a drive to blacktop margins of around 75 km of roads in the city.

The unused space between the footpaths and the road is being filled with tar topping. This is being done only in places where there is clay and water percolation is impossible.

Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni told The Hindu that of the 300 km of bus routes, 75 km was targeted and 30 km completed till date. “We are not disturbing the pavements in any way. In places where streetlights were on roads they have been shifted inside the footpaths.”

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/14/stories/2009021450010100.htm

reclaiming the wasted space is a good idea. apart from the face-lift, the key to the success is making it tougher to trespass/violate for the encroachers. a higher elevation of the curbs or some sort of coping along the edge of the footpath might work. as for the sand/dirt piles, so long as there are open-bodied trucks that carry sand/dirt/gravel there will always be that. lets just get over it.

Outer Ring Road for Chennai Metropolitan at the cost of 858 INR crore. :)

- Announced in Tamilnadu budget 2009-2010

http://tm.dinakaran.com/showxml.aspx?id=176578&code=24251

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If i am correct the present Inner Ring Road i.e 100-feet road was the plan of ex-chief minister MGR in 1980's!

^^

More news

http://203.200.89.222/maalaimalar/1722009/epaperimages/1722009/1722009-md-hr-5/154235593.jpg

* The ORR starts from Vandalur and goes till Nemilicherry via Naserthpet for 30KMs

* Works will start this year itself

* 100 INR crore allotted for this year.

Outer Ring Road for Chennai Metropolitan at the cost of 858 INR crore. :)

- Announced in Tamilnadu budget 2009-2010

http://tm.dinakaran.com/showxml.aspx?id=176578&code=24251

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If i am correct the present Inner Ring Road i.e 100-feet road was the plan of ex-chief minister MGR in 1980's!


inner ring road was part of first master plan drafted early 70s. i don't believe mgr did anything for chennai. i always thought 1980s was the worst decade for chennai's growth.

Chennai: Chennai will soon have a 62-km-long outer ring road (ORR) which will help in reducing traffic congestion in the city. The new ORR will come up between Vandalur and Minjur through Nemilichery near Pattabiram, Tiruvottiyur and Ponneri to enable vehicles from southern districts to reach the northern side without entering the city.
The state government on Tuesday announced in the Budget that the project will be implemented at a total cost of Rs 858 crore, connecting three major national highways including Chennai-Trichy highway, Chennai-Bengaluru highway and Chennai-Kolkata highway. The road will be built in two phases under public-private partnership but the government has proposed not to collect any toll from the road users. Works for constructing the 30-km long road from Vandalur to Nemilichery through Nazarathpet will be taken up in the first phase this year. The government has allotted Rs 100 crore for the project in the 2009-10 Budget.
Highways secretary K Allaudin told Times of India that the project would be commenced as soon as possible. “Land acquisition for the first phase and 60 to 70% for the second phase has already been completed. Though there are some court cases seeking enhanced compensation, they will not affect the project implementation. As the government has allotted funds for the project, other things including calling of tenders will follow in due course,’’ he said.
In view of the increasing vehicular population, the sixlane ORR would be a great relief in bringing down the traffic congestions inside the city to a considerable extent, Allaudin added. Already, Chennai bypass, a 32-km long expressway to interlink all the four national highways around the city from Tambaram to Madhavaram through Maduravoyal and Ambattur, is being constructed by the National Highways Authority of India. While the first phase of Chennai bypass upto Maduravoyal was completed last year, second phase of the work — which includes an elevated highway for three km — is in progress. On completion of the bypass project, vehicles coming from Tiruchi and other southern districts can reach Bangalore Road, MTH Road and Kolkata High

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOICH/2009/02/18&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00205&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

with only 4 lanes.

Mean while

Bangalore will have Metro,Monorail,BRTS,MRTS and PRR also for more than 500 kms

Hyderabad will have Metro,Monorail,ORR,IRR,PRR and BRTS for more than 500 kms

This ORR has been in the same status for many years. See the exact same status regarding land acquisition reported in 2004-5
http://www.tn.gov.in/policynotes/archives/policy2004-05/hud2004-05-8.htm

They will give same status in 2015 too. Our people and media are indeed idiots

Even though I am happy Bangalore and Hyderabad are developing very well Chennai should not be left behind.

After ORR completes it will be a big boost for Hyd.
Bangalore Metro is progressing fast, it will come end 2010 and that will be a big boost for Bangalore image and past glory of IT growth will start from 2011 and Chennai will be left behind if at least these very small project are not getting completed in time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_RBTW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_BRTS

Check this out . We are not far behind . We are ahead of Bangalore and Hyderabad when it comes to public transport .We got a suburban railway system , MRTS already . Metro will cover the areas missed out here . Our traffic management is much more efficient than Bang and Hyd ,so we got no problems here .

But let's hope these are not paper projects . One city we have to dread is Ahmedabad , it is makin rapid strides .:ohno:

Proposed:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Monorail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Metro

Existing Systems:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_suburban_railway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_System_(Chennai)

Does any city in India apart from Mumbai boast of such high quality public transport ?

I am aware of the fact. My only concern is when other cities are having a operating Metro and Monorail if Chennai gets it after say 5 ways there will be lot of lost opportunity to the city and Chennai should get it at least within 2 years after them so the gap is less.

Even though I am happy Bangalore and Hyderabad are developing very well Chennai should not be left behind.

After ORR completes it will be a big boost for Hyd.
Bangalore Metro is progressing fast, it will come end 2010 and that will be a big boost for Bangalore image and past glory of IT growth will start from 2011 and Chennai will be left behind if at least these very small project are not getting completed in time.

Are you so sure that Bangalore and Hyderabad are developing very well?I stay in my hometown Hyderabad and visit Bangalore frequently but observe their growth like any other place in our country.people in Hyderabad who visit chennai say that your city is making good progress particularly flyovers,public transport and industrial growth.:)

I am aware of the fact. My only concern is when other cities are having a operating Metro and Monorail if Chennai gets it after say 5 ways there will be lot of lost opportunity to the city and Chennai should get it at least within 2 years after them so the gap is less.

Take it from me no city in India with the exception of Delhi and Kolkatta will get a metro system in operation with in even a decade from now.In India every infrastructure project moves at a snail's pace and in chennai it is even much slower.Things are different in China.I had the opportunity to see the big cites in the Dragon country and they are mind boggling and the execution of the projects at a fast pace is seen to be believed.

China is a communist country , no blind opposition party is there like PMK Ramadoss . Here , in India , all projects mooted by ADMK will be cancelled by DMK and so on . In China , that can't happen . Once a project is mooted and deadline is set . You have to keep up the deadline . Period .

And I think Chennai is way ahead of Hyderabad and Bangalore in terms of public transport . From Sholinganallur to Nungambakkam , 25 kms took me only 55 minutes . Is it possible in Bangalore or Hyderabad ? I think they have catchin up to do .

Hyderabad Traffic is horrible to the core!! People dont have traffic sense at all!! None obeys traffic signal.. been there recently and shocked to see them keep moving ahead even when the red light is on! :bash::bash: (Traffic Police dunno wat to do and kept watching them!!)

Actually a car was supposed to stop coz redlight was on in a junction.. But it stopped a lorry which was proceeding at 90 degrees to it and took a dramatic turn and then kept speeding.... this lead to a 10 mins trafficjam..This happened in the Center of the city @ 3pm !! :bash:

On returning to chennai , it was 1.30 AM... Mount Road... the signal is Red. all the vehichles stopped before stop line including the bus which i came in (though it never did the same in Hyderabad).... No traffic at the junction except few cars... (No traffic police at the juction) Only when the green light was on, the traffic proceeded!!

This is because cameras were installed everywhere in chennai!
But in hyderabad they dont even bother about the traffic police at all.... then what will they do if a camera is replaced for a traffic police!! :lol:
Chennai is far more better than bengaluru and hyderabad in traffic sense!!

inner ring road was part of first master plan drafted early 70s. i don't believe mgr did anything for chennai. i always thought 1980s was the worst decade for chennai's growth.

MGR had only good intentions but never could do anything good either for Chennai or the state in general except for some populist stuff like free sari, chappal, tooth powder, nutrious noon meal scheme ( I wouldn't say this one was no good). The period was generally one of wasted opportunities.

^^

What about the subways in Mount road right from Pallavan Salai to Guindy?

Any idea which periode we got those subways?

lets try stick to the topic and keep away from politics. Its the roads that matters, not who implemented it or what politicxal party he belongs to.

^^

Whats wrong in discussing about the period of implementation? It matters here... because Chennai does not get equal development in infrastructure in all the period! And nothing here discussed about deep about the politics!!

And most of the news items posted here or any infrastructure thread contains political leaders name, what we can do with that?

^^

Whats wrong in discussing about the period of implementation? It matters here... because Chennai does not get equal development in infrastructure in all the period! And nothing here discussed about deep about the politics!!

And most of the news items posted here or any infrastructure thread contains political leaders name, what we can do with that?

Arul, it is widely accepted that most of the infra/industrial projects in and around chennai were initiated/implemented in successive Cong and DMK govts.
Obviously some members who are ADMK supporters may not take it very well and could knock themselves off to enumerate whatever ADMK govts have done to Chennai. I have been a member in this thread since 2005 and
from my past experiences in this thread, It is very easy for members to flare up and get into abusive mode. Let us steer clear of politics as much as we possibly can.

Having worked with (Still doing) Nehthas (Politicians) and Babus (IAS & other state govt employees), I feel that we need all of them for projects in India. They have their own checks and balances.

If Land Acquisition Laws are not so stringently followd by Babudom (Red Tape), half of India would have been gobbled up by the Nehthas by now. If Babus are given a free hand, it will be a Chaklka Jam - no project will see the light of the day. Nehthas force the Babus to take decisions. We need both of them.

The current fad regarding the PPP model has brought a sea change and if fine tuned properly, it seems like the sure way for growth. Of course we may encounter a few instances like MAYTAS - AP CM nexus, but the overall development can ride over all these hiccups.

MGR had only good intentions but never could do anything good either for Chennai or the state in general except for some populist stuff like free sari, chappal, tooth powder, nutrious noon meal scheme ( I wouldn't say this one was no good). The period was generally one of wasted opportunities.

MGR was a good human being but a very bad administrator.He thought majority of the tamils never think of bettering their standard of living and therefore in order to ensure their loyalty introduced so many populist schemes which the people there cling to it even to this date.But the introduction of Kamaraj's mid day meal to poor school students in a large scale since 1-7-1982 by MGR is truly a feather on his cap.This scheme is implemented throghout the country now.

MGR was a good human being but a very bad administrator.He thought majority of the tamils never think of bettering their standard of living and therefore in order to ensure their loyalty introduced so many populist schemes which the people there cling to it even to this date.But the introduction of Kamaraj's mid day meal to poor school students in a large scale since 1-7-1982 by MGR is truly a feather on his cap.This scheme is implemented throghout the country now.

I remember reading a news item long time back in India that some US officials wanted to study the noon meal scheme implemented by MGR. Now that I am in US, I see the noon meal scheme implemented here. But I am not sure if it was copied from TN or not.