NHAI plans 6-lane expressway to ease traffic entering city

Chennai: Vehicles from Bengaluru, Krishnagiri, and Vellore entering the city will soon have a smooth thoroughfare as National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approved construction of a six-lane flyover from Poonamallee to Maduravoyal.NHAI on Tuesday floated tenders to build an 8.1km elevated corridor at a cost of 1,250crores. The elevated corridor will have entry and exit points at its origins and will not have any access ramps in between, and will be toll-charged. NHAI is also constructing another four-lane Thiruvarur Bypass in the Nagapattinam–Thanjavur section of NH 83. The bypass, which spans 14.936km, will be executed under hybrid annuity mode at a cost of 796crore. NHAI project director, Chennai, I S Janakumaran, said about 90,000 vehicles travel on average on Poonamallee-Maduravoyal stretch daily. "The works will begin in three months, and the deadline is two and a half years," he said, adding that NHAI is yet to decide if the construction expenditure will be fully borne by the contractor and later collected in toll, or if NHAI will pay upfront.The corridor will in the future be complemented by another 13km corridor linking ORR and Sriperumbudur, enabling commuters to cover a stretch of 22km in less than 20minutes, making entry to the city quicker compared to the current entry time, which takes about one hour due to various junctions in Poonamallee, Mangadu, Thiruverkadu, and Vanagaram.Janakumaran said the contractor will take up one lane to carry out pile and pier works on both sides of the road. "There will be 10 usable lanes including the service lane. The traffic won't be hindered," he said. The Chennai Port will also benefit as it can maximise the use of its 135 MTPA cargo capacity with freight reaching and moving out faster, he said. Residents demanded a quicker expansion to connect with the Chennai-Bengaluru expressway's interchange at Sriperumbudur and constructing better service lanes in key stretches. "People will rely more on service lanes when construction is ongoing. They must be relaid entirely. Three years of construction for an expressway is too long as this is a wide road. NHAI must fast-track its deadline and parallelly build expressways to Sriperumbudur, so when the 262km Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway gets operational, commuters can benefit immediately," said S Lazar of Aishwarya Nagar RWA in Nolambur.NHAI has finished construction of an 84km stretch of its national expressway-7 (NE7) in Bengaluru. Works are underway in Andhra Pradesh and TN, to be finished by end of 2026.