Manapakkam bridge ready for use

An additional bridge across the Adyar at Manapakkam, near MIOT Hospitals, on Mount—Poonamallee Main Road is ready for use.

The State Highways Department, which maintains the stretch, is giving the final cosmetic touch to it. Following this, the facility should be formally inaugurated by the State government and thrown open for motorists.

However, the new bridge is allowed to be used during the morning rush hour, to ease congestion on the stretch.

Here, it may be recalled that the police allowed motorists to use new flyovers in Vysarpadi, Vadapalani, Tirumangalam and Moolakadai before these facilities were formally opened by the government, to ease traffic congestion on arterial roads that linked by these bridges.

“The State government should open the bridge immediately without waiting for a formal inauguration as motorists have been waiting for this for a long time and it will help them immensely,” says K. Santhosh, a motorist from Ramapuram.

The Rs. 17-crore bridge project was started early last year by the State Highways Department after getting clearance from the Water Resource Department (WRD) of the State government on two conditions: Not to do anything that will alter the width of the river and also affect its flow. The width of the Adyar river below the new flyover is around 120 metres.

Simultaneously, the State Highways widened the Mount – Poonamallee Main Road between Nandambakkam and Porur, a distance of around six km, into six-lane stretch. The construction of a new bridge was the only pending work between the two points. With the completion of this work, the entire space of the two bridges (old and new) will be clubbed to make for a six-lane passageway.

A common median will be placed dividing each bridge into a three-lane carriageway. Such a wide passageway is necessary as the advent of DLF IT Park has led to increased vehicular movement on this section.

Residents and motorists want the State Highways to open the facility at the earliest to ease traffic congestion on the route.

State Highways officials however say a request has been sent to the government for the formal inauguration of the bridge, but the date has not been confirmed yet.

“We are waiting for the nod from the government for the opening of the facility. Most of the work has been completed,” says a State Highways official.