No bridges, forced to cross tracks: Residents of Tondiarpet and Villivakkam

After decades of proposals and documents going back and forth, two key infrastructure projects in the city – railway bridge over Tondiarpet Level Crossing (LC2A and LC2B) and Villivakkam’s Level Crossing-1 (LC1) – will be constructed soon. 

Although residents, who have been demanding the bridge for years, are relieved, they are also sceptical at the pace with which the work is being carried out.  Residents of Tondiarpet, who have to use Ennore High Road, remain trapped for at least an hour between two level crossings, in case a goods train is scheduled to pass by. But, what irks the residents is that these crossings are not scheduled properly. 

“The level crossings are shut at least four times a day which leads to a traffic pile-up on the road and the disruption lasts for an hour,” said Anandakumar, a 23-year-old photographer, who has been living in the locality for the past two decades. “The level crossing does not give way immediately after the train leaves. When we informed the railways officials about it, they said they could open the crossing only if they receive the signal. We have requested the officials to arrange it in such a way that the trains pass during the night hours, to cause least disturbance but in vain,” he added.

The residents have been asking for a bridge to ensure smoother traffic flow between the two existing level crossings, LC2A and LC2B, situated a few kilometres away from each other. “There are two schools between these two crossings and sometimes, when the crossing is hut in the morning peak hours, the traffic pile-up causes students to be late for school,” Anandakumar said.

According to the residents, authorities had tested the soil of the area between the two level crossings a year ago. “They also cleared out the encroachments on the land around the crossings. We were hopeful that the construction of the bridge will begin soon. But there has hardly any progress so far,” said Hemraj V, a resident of Royapuram and a citizen activist.  The construction of railway bridges is a joint initiative between the Railways and the civic body. In its budget for the upcoming financial year, the Greater Chennai Corporation had allocated Rs 59 crore for the bridge at LC-1 in Villivakkam while Rs 137 crore has been assigned towards the bridge connecting LC2A and LC2B at Tondiarpet. The Corporation plans to use take up 1,700 metres of the bridge in Tondiarpet, with a carriageway of 12.5 metres, whereas the Villivakkam bridge work will be constructed across 480 metres along a carriageway of 7.8 meters. The rest of the work on the bridge was supposed to be taken up by the Railways. 

A senior Corporation official said that the work on the Tondiarpet bridge would begin shortly as tenders have already been called and detailed project reports (DPR) ready. Work on the Villivakkam bridge will, however, have to wait. “We are awaiting administrative sanction of capital funding. Once the government order is issued, the tendering for the bridge works on Villivakkam level crossing will begin,” said the official. Sources in the Corporation said that the bridge in Villivakkam will cost Rs 20 crore, while the remaining amount will be used for land acquisition. 

“The bridge will cover both the level crossings and end at Manali Salai. The LC should be closed for the work to begin and discussions are underway for it to be facilitated at the earliest,” another official said. In Villivakkam, the half-constructed pillars, with the supporting rods jutting out, stand testimony to the lackadaisical attitude towards infrastructure projects around level crossings. This bridge is supposed to connect Villivakkam GKM Colony with Perambur Loco Works, providing access to key areas such as Anna Nagar, Korattur, Perambur and ICF, among others. 

According to the existing Railways’ norms, a level crossing should be converted into a railway bridge if the train vehicular unit (TVU) is over 1 lakh. AV Surendran, chairman of the Rajaji Nagar Civic Exnora Welfare Association, is one among the hundreds of residents pushing for this bridge for more than 15 years. “There are 1,500 households in Rajaji Nagar, which is on one side of the railway tracks. Like our locality, there are close to 300 such areas parallel to the railway line, which divides into the North and South Villivakkam. After much protest, LC2 was converted into a subway. But because the level crossing is closed now, residents have to take a 3-km detour through this subway to reach the opposite side,” said Surendran. “The portion that the Railways were supposed to build is complete. They had started the work 20 months ago. But, the state government has done little to complete the work,” he said. The activist added that judging by the speed at which the work is being carried out, it may take the civic body a few years to complete the bridge. Both the projects have been in the can for close to two decades now, with land acquisitions being cited as a major stumbling block. Commenting on this, former mayor, M Subramaniam, said, “During my tenure, we mooted the Cochrane Basin Road ROB and the Villivakkam LC 2 subway but after that none of the new bridge works have been taken up. This is because of the lack of leadership in the current government, which is causing the delay in these key projects.”