A long-standing demand of residents will come to an end as preliminary work for constructng a new bypass including a high-level bridge across Palar river in Vellore, off the Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 44), has commenced.
Officials of the Department of Highways said that the new bypass, which will be a four-lane route, will be for a distance of 3 km that will connect the service lane of the highway at Sathuvachari within Vellore Corporation limits at one end and Kangeyanallur village near VIT in Katpadi area. The work is being done by the Construction and Maintenance (C&M) wing of the State Highways.
The work also includes a new high-level bridge across Palar. It will be built at the centre of the bypass stretch. “We have started initial work of clearing vegetation on the acquired land (70,775 sq.m). The bypass and the bridge will be ready by the end of 2025,” R. Poovarasan, Assistant Engineer (AE), Department of Highways, told The Hindu.
As per plan, the bypass will be formed at a cost of ₹90 crore in 24 months. The four-lane carriageway of the bypass will be 15 metres wide including 2.5 metres of median. The stretch will also help more vehicles to use the route than the existing Katpadi flyover, which is a two-lane and one-way route. As per estimates, once completed, the new bypass stretch can be used by at least 17,250 vehicles every day.
The new four-lane bridge, which will be 475 metres long and 15 metres wide, will have at least 19 pillars across Palar river. The bridge will be at least three metres higher than the existing Katpadi flyover, which was built in 2009, to prevent any damage to its structure and inundation to its carriageway. In other words, the bridge will be built at a height of 20 ft from the dry river bed.
