Greater Chennai Corporation begins survey of congested roads for widening stretches
The Hindu
GCC surveying congested roads in Chennai for widening to ease traffic congestion, focusing on Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and more.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has started a survey of congested roads for widening stretches to ease traffic congestion.
GCC Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan held a meeting on Friday with Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) officials in the presence of its Member Secretary Anshul Mishra to discuss road widening works. “In the first phase, four roads will be widened in Chennai,” a GCC official said.
Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai is to be widened to 30.5 m. Once this is done, traffic congestion is expected to ease in areas such as Mylapore, Royapettah, Thousand Lights, and Teynampet. Later, a land plan schedule for more stretches in the area will be prepared for widening more roads. The width of Lattice Bridge Road will be increased to 30.5 m, and Paper Mills Road and New Avadi Road to 18 m. Of all the congested roads in the city, Paper Mills Road has the most encroachments, an official said, and added that the road was around 12 m wide at most places due to this.
“Issues during the widening exercise are more likely to crop up in the case of Paper Mills Road. Acquiring land or Transferable Development Rights are likely to take a longer as ownership may run into several hundreds on such roads,” said K. Kumar, former CMDA Chief Planner and visiting faculty, School of Architecture And Planning, Anna University.
Stressing the need to improve the riding surface of the roads in the city, he said the poor riding surface of roads would affect traffic flow even after the roads were widened. “Half the traffic problem will be solved if we have an efficient bus system. One should have a policy on how one will incorporate sustainability and priority measures for buses,” Mr. Kumar said.
“Many traffic problems are caused by encroachments with political support. During his previous tenure as the Deputy Chief Minister, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin used to conduct fortnightly meetings with officials to resolve political issues to ease traffic congestion. We used to participate in the meetings. Encroachments on roads were removed,” said Mr. Kumar.