Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Diversion may add to pressure on Inner Ring Road

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI June 30. The Inner Ring Road (IRR) will face a serious threat if the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) accepts a proposal of the State Government to use it for the second phase of the recently-inaugurated Chennai bypass.

The original plan was to link NH 45 and NH 4 from Irumbuliyur to Madhuravoyal in the first phase, and upto NH 5 through the Ambattur Industrial Estate and Puzhal in the second. The Tamil Nadu Government had instead suggested a detour for the second phase through IRR (or 100 feet road) via Koyambedu and Madhavaram.

Already burdened with a volume of one lakh vehicles a day, traffic on IRR is expected to increase by 25 per cent every year. Unloading the burden of a 200-feet bypass onto a 100-feet road will only add to the present congestion on the Koyambedu- Madhavaram stretch, says CMDA officials who planned the circular road. The alternative was proposed in the late 1990s after the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association objected to the route passing through their area. A solution was reached after the National Highways Department in the State Government accepted a suggestion for the route to pass through the existing 120 feet road in Ambattur and the nearby Vanagaram-Athipattu Road. Only three of the 11 areas needed for the project remain to be acquired. But, the State Government continued to push its IRR proposal.

Sources in the NHAI said the State Government recently requested the agency to revert to the original alternative, but a senior State Highways official denied it, saying that the Government still preferred the IRR option. A senior official of RITES, the NHAI consultant for the project, confirmed that they were studying both options.

The bypass was conceptualised in the late 1970s as a high speed facility to link the three highways passing through Chennai (NH 45, NH 4 and NH 5) and relieve the city of the heavy commercial traffic. But, connecting the bypass to the IRR would only frustrate that intention, say officials. The proposal to toll the bypass would also re-divert traffic to the IRR. they said. Besides, Chennai's boundaries have since expanded and the bypass road now falls about 15 km within its contours.''

Allaying fears, NHAI officials said the IRR would be upgraded to National Highways standards if the proposal was accepted. Even so, the move would interfere with other developments along the 100 feet Road, especially the proposed MRTS lines here.The CMDA has proposed to extend the elevated railway along the IRR median on single pillars and officials fear that making the Koyambedu-Madhavaram stretch part of the bypass would hinder their plans.

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