Elephant Gate bridge demolition in limbo

Elephant Gate Bridge has been closed for all vehicles except two-wheelers for four years now. The facility was partially closed for it to be demolished and build a new bridge but the authorities are yet to remove so much as a brick from the bridge. The delay has been forcing commuters to take a longer route via Basin Bridge and it is chock-a-block with traffic there.

In 2015, the State government had sanctioned Rs 26 crore for the project involving both the State and Southern Railways. However, the project was stalled after Tangedco refused to remove the high-tension power cables passing through the bridge.

“Elephant Gate bridge is an important link road for people travelling from Sowcarpet, Kondithope, Broadway and other surrounding areas. Now, as only two-wheelers are allowed on the bridge, it has put people using other modes of transport in a spot. They must either take the road in front of Central station or the Basin bridge, which means travelling extra two to three kms. Moreover, the time taken to traverse Basin Bridge alone comes to about 20 to 25 minutes, owing to the heavy traffic,” said Muruganantham P, an office-goer from Old Washermenpet.

Owing to rampant complaints of traffic bottleneck, the traffic police came up with a new traffic plan last month. But that has failed to help as the existing route through basin bridge flyover continues to be clogged with heavy traffic due to MTC buses from Choolai, Perambur and Vallalar Nagar stopping on the bridge. This considerably slows down the movement of vehicles from Wall Tax Road.

Commenting on the delay in demolition of the bridge, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said, “Railways have to demolish the existing bridge as it is their property. The tenders for that has been finalised and they will soon start the work. It is expected to be finished in two months. Also, there is a high voltage line to be shifted from the bridge. Once that is done, the alignments will be finalised in joint coordination and our role is to lay 500 meters of ramp either way. We can start only if the Railways complete their part of the work. It shouldn’t take more than 6 months to do our work,” he added.

A senior Railways official said that Southern Railway has approved the demolition. “Tangedco is in the process of relocating cables and towers. Once that is diverted, the demolition will begin. The Southern Railways will complete the work within 60 days,” said the official.

Meanwhile, Tangedco officials said that the electricity cables passing through the bridge were high tension power lines of 230kv and 110kv capacity, conveying power from Manali to the heart of the city. “Shifting these power lines would involve a lot of money. We started the work three months ago and it is in progress,” said a Tangedco official.

Meanwhile, commuters continue to suffer from official apathy. “We have to start at least two hours ahead to reach office on time. We must wait for at least an hour to pass through the Vallalar Nagar due to the slow-moving traffic to cross the basin bridge,” said Naresh Kumar M, a motorist from Perambur.