The Hindu Business Line : A project to speed up mobility and ease traffic in Chennai

Chennai, May 15 Can you imagine reaching the Porur junction from Adyar in about 20 minutes cruising through lush greenery? Sounds impossible with the current state of roads? Well, hold your breath. Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd (TNUIFSL) is working to make this dream come true.

Development Pattern

There has been a clustered development pattern in Chennai — northern belt occupied by petroleum and chemical industries, western part as a manufacturing hub and the South as the IT destination. This has led to roads which are chock-a-block with traffic.

The city has about 2,500 km of roads and widening them is impossible due to saturation of room in the roads.

Speaking to Business Line, the advisor of TNUIFSL, Dr M. S. Srinivasan, says due to the rapid growth of motor vehicle population in Chennai, most corridors exceed 1 lakh passenger car units per day, resulting in capacity saturation.

The idea

Hence, based on the State Government’s advice, TNUIFSL has conceived an idea to re-route traffic through newly identified corridors and connecting links along the cleaned-up river water courses of the city and integrating them with the initiatives taken by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Totally nine alignments have been identified, which will have four circular routes within the city interconnecting the existing roads and vantage points. This will add another 120 km of roads to the city. Interestingly, these roads can be laid out without disturbing the existing traffic, he says.

The project focuses on reducing the width of river bodies such as Adyar, Mambalam and Buckingham canals to the required level without affecting the flow, and uses the reclaimed space for constructing parks, promenades and roads, said the Assistant Vice President of TNUIFSL, Ms R. Gayathri. About 50 per cent of the 120 km length of the road will be constructed by the State Government at a cost of Rs 40 crore a km, she adds.

Mobility

Dr Srinivasan hopes that the project will enhance the mobility of the city as it will ease inter and intra-city traffic besides creating clean river water systems.

“The feasibility study relating to various alignments in the proposed 120-km stretch and a detailed report on the Adyar river front project will be taken up soon,” he says. Recently, TNUIFSL invited bids from international consultants for this project. The study will be completed in about nine months and execution is expected in 24 months, he adds.

In addition, the project proposes to introduce Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and a dedicated passage for two/three-wheelers. The study also aims to develop a revenue model to make the project self-sustainable, he says. The study will examine the possibility of relocating the slums in situ. The Government plans to implement the project through the Adyar Poonga Trust, which engaged TNUIFSL to develop and assist in execution of the project, he says.

Initially, the Adyar alignment will be taken up as an integrated riverfront development project. The cost of the project is likely to be Rs 2,300 crore and may eventually become self-sustaining, he adds.

More Stories on : Roadways | Urban Development | Tamil Nadu

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A project to speed up mobility and ease traffic in Chennai