A 10-year-old dream of the residents of Perungalathur and beyond to take a road overbridge (ROB) over the railway level crossing 32 (LC 32) without waiting on the GST Road is likely to become a reality in a few years. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recently gave its nod for the construction of the ROB, with a rotary on top, on the National Highway to Tiruchi.
Sources in the State Highways Department said tenders for the construction of the ROB with six arms — four on the GST Road and one each on either side allowing motorists from nearby residential localities to cross the arterial road — would be floated soon.
“We have already completed the required land acquisition for the arms on either side. The period of construction would be three years since, it is a large structure. The government has also accorded revised administrative sanction for the additional cost. The old estimate was ₹76 crore,” explained an official source.
Southern Railway has completed construction of its portion of one arm over the railway tracks. The proposal to construct an ROB over LC 32 and a pedestrian subway at the adjacent level crossing number 33 was drawn up in 2009 when the department had written to the NHAI seeking their “no objection”. The letters with requests from the department and clarifications from the NHAI kept going back and forth and it took the NHAI 10 years to grant the NOC, recalled a former official of the Highways Department.
‘An end to woes’
Perungalathur resident D. Jebadurai said residents had to travel 2 km on the GST Road to take a U-turn and enter the nearby level crossing to reach their homes.
“We have to wait anywhere between 15 minutes to half-an-hour at the gate. Many a times, traffic jams on the GST Road run to quite a distance, making things even more difficult for residents,” he said.