With work on phase-I of Chennai Outer Ring Road, from Vandalur to Nemilichery, nearing completion, the State government recently gave its nod for a consortium of Ashoka Buildcon and GVR Infra Projects to build phase-II, from Nemilichery to Minjur.

On completion, the 61.65-km-long road will form a semicircle around the city and help decongest Chennai’s roads. It will act as a major link and connect four national highways — NH 4, NH 5, NH 45 and NH 205.

According to sources in the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), the managing associate for the project, the work order has been issued and the contract is to be signed with the consortium to execute the 32-km stretch.

The cost of the project, being executed under a design, finance, build, operate and transfer basis, would be Rs. 985.44 crore, of which Rs. 197 crore will be provided by the State government as project support fund.

Of the 20 years during which the company would operate the road, 2.5 years is for construction. The consortium will get six months to achieve financial closure after which it will commence work.

The various features of the road include a flyover at Red Hills–Tiruvallur Road, an interchange on the Kolkata Road at Padianallur and a bridge across the Kosasthalaiyar river near Minjur.

The end point at Minjur is on the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetty Road, which is 10 km away from Ennore Port to which the road will provide connectivity.

According to an official, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is carrying out land acquisition for the project and of the 278.25 hectares of private land, 90 per cent has been acquired. Government land too is required for the project. The road would pass through the Sidco Industrial Estate near Vellanur.

Meanwhile, lighting on 25 km of phase-I has been completed and residents of villages such as Mannivakkam, Varadharajapuram, Nazarathpet, Kolapancheri, Amudurmedu and Thandarai have begun using the road.

“The lights are kept on to avoid accidents at night. We are unable to prevent residents from using the road. Bus shelters have been installed on one side for the entire stretch,” said a TNRDC official. The work, except on the three interchanges, is expected to be completed by October end.

It may be recalled that farmers of Karunakaracheri, Ramapuram, Annambedu and Thandarai have been protesting against the proposal to take over 100 acres of agricultural land for setting up a truck terminal abutting ORR phase-I.

Source-http://www.thehindu.com

Source - http://www.thehindu.com

(Hundreds of pedestrians risk their lives daily while crossing busy roads such as the one near Huda City CentreMetro Station in Gurgaon. (Manoj Kumar/HT)

Frequent jams, traffic bottlenecks, lack of road space, non-functional traffic signals and unmanned crossings are major trouble areas.

Flaws in road design force commuters to take a detour of seven kilometres from Rajiv Chowk to the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza in order to take a u-turn. Gurgaon residents risk their lives while maneuvering through high-speed vehicles as they negotiate a u-turn to go to Ambience Mall.

Getting stuck for 30 minutes at the Signature Tower Chowk during peak hours is a routine affair and the absence of a traffic signal at the Huda City Centre Metro station, which is often unmanned, only makes things worse.According to the mobility plan on Gurgaon prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning, the average speed of intra-city traffic in the city is 23 kilometres per hour. Motor vehicles use 60% of the total roads in Gurgaon whereas public transport occupies only 10% of road space. Only 23% roads have walkable footpaths.

Nearly 2,300 kms of internal road network notwithstanding, the Millennium City lacks adequate space, thanks to the surging number of vehicles on roads.

Nearly 60,000 new vehicles are registered every year in the city and 10 lakh vehicles ply on city roads everyday that include around five lakh inter-city vehicles plying mainly on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway and Gurgaon-Faridabad Expressway.

At major Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway crossings like Shankar Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Signature Tower and Rajiv Chowk, ill-designed u-turns, faulty traffic lights or their absence, oversized concrete triangular structures that bifurcate traffic through slip roads make driving on Gurgaon roads a horrible experience.

“While cities like Ahmedabad have taken a lead in addressing traffic woes as their top priority, there seems to be a complete policy paralysis in Gurgaon when it comes to planning and implementing models of traffic management,” says Sarika Panda, a city resident and an urban planning expert, who is working with the Haryana Urban Development Authority to promote non-motorised transport (NMT) in Gurgaon. Heavy reliance on private cars as there is hardly any public transport system in the city adds to the chaos, she adds further.

City resident and former joint commissioner of police (traffic), Delhi, Maxwell Pereira points out that pedestrians and cyclists are left out when planners make crossings and roads in India.

Gurgaon joint commissioner of police Maheshwar Dayal, who is presently also looking after the traffic department, says all stakeholders are trying to work in tandem.

“We hold routine meetings with civic bodies and make them aware of design faults at crossings. We have raised the issue of the bottleneck at Sirhaul toll plaza bottleneck on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway at highest levels including in courts,” he says.