Land acquisition is under way for the widening of the final stretch of the 18.6-km-long Velachery-Tambaram Road at Selaiyur near the Madras Christian College. This stretch is congested because of a large number of commercial buildings on either side of the busy road.
While the rest of the road is either four lanes or six lanes wide, this particular stretch is narrow causing traffic to move slowly during peak hours.
“We have proposed to make it into six lanes at a cost of ₹10.35 crore. The amount required for land acquisition has been deposited with the Revenue department and the process is in its final stages,” said an official in the Highways Department.
Three stretches on the road — Pallikaranai, Gowrivakkam and Selaiyur — need to be widened to make the road uniformly six-lane wide. At Pallikaranai, land acquisition for an 800-metre stretch is under way.
“Work on the macro drain connecting Anai with the Pallikaranai marsh will be completed once the land acquisition is completed. For now, large pipes have been laid to carry the waters. It is expected that the land will be available in four months,” said another official.
At Gowrivakkam, a few buildings may be be demolished to attain the required width.
S. Sampath Kumar, a resident of Velachery, said encroachments should be removed from the roadsides on a regular basis. The road surface has to be relaid on several stretches, including Kamaraj Nagar. If the road did not have potholes and had an even surface, driving would be easier, he said.
