Plans Underway for Elevated Corridor on Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road

It will be built at the Kamakshi Hospital junction, where the road meets Velachery- Tambaram Road, and will extend to Chennai One IT Park. It will come up one level above the existing flyover.

Traffic at Kamakshi Hospital is extremely slow-moving, and Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road meets Velachery-Tambaram Road, hence this aggravates the situation. So much so that those using the stretch factor in the waiting time when trying to travel to their destination.

Motorists such as Vidyasagar Jagadeesan, who use the junction regularly, say vehicles have no other option but to move slowly, and it is very frustrating. “It will be helpful if a free left turn is put in place to Chennai One IT Park from the Velachery side. This will ensure reduced wait time and free flow of vehicles towards Thoraipakkam. A second-level flyover on the radial road will help ease traffic as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, for a reduction in waiting time at the junction, a detailed project report is being prepared that will see the building of an elevated corridor connecting the Kamakshi Hospital junction with Chennai One IT Park along the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road, an essential corridor connecting Grand Southern Trunk Road with Rajiv Gandhi Salai.

According to sources on the Highways Department, the consultant appointed for the project is preparing the DPR, which will take a few months to be completed. “The Kamakshi Hospital junction is a very crucial one, which has traffic flow from all directions at all times. Due to this, vehicles move slowly,” said an engineer associated with the project.

“We are thinking of constructing the elevated corridor one level above the existing flyover from Velachery to Tambaram. Integrating this corridor with the existing bridge is not a possibility since it is an old structure and demolishing a portion of it and building a rotary will not be cost-effective,” an engineer said.

Asked about why the movement of vehicles was slowing down at the junction, he said the number of vehicles had increased over the years with the development of residential localities, information technology companies, and commercial establishments. “We cannot widen the portion of the road between Thoraipakkam and Kamakshi Hospital since it passes through the marshland. In such a scenario, constructing the corridor is imperative.”