Work to widen Guduvanchery-Kottamedu road at slow pace, irks residents

Chennai

The Guduvanchery-Kottamedu road via Nandivaram and Nellikuppam runs to 18 km and is one of the busiest roads in the district since many educational institutions and factories are located in the stretch. Sources said many apartments and business houses are also under construction on both sides, making it one of the fast-developing areas in the locality.

Since hundreds of light and heavy vehicles were using the road every day, the 18-km stretch is usually packed with traffic and the students and office-goers suffer the most, unable to make it on time. Following widespread demand, in 2018 the State government planned to convert the two-lane road into a four-lane road at an estimated cost of Rs 77 crore. The work was given to the State Highways Department.

As there were encroachments and other issues, the department handed over the construction work to the National Highways department in 2019, who had promised to finish the work in March 2020.

However, the residents complain that work is not even half completed. “In most of the places, the road was not converted into four-lane and it remains the same two-lane road,” said Dinesh Kumar, of Nandivaram. “Constructing a new two-lane road is useless since the traffic is going to be the same and people will suffer as usual.” The locals also said the officials are not removing the encroachments properly and that it will take three more years for the construction to get finished if they continue at the same pace. Santhamoorthy, of Guduvancherry, said: “We have filed a petition to the District Collector and the State government officials to remove the encroachments properly and convert the whole 18-km stretch into a four-lane road but we have not received a proper response yet.”

When contacted, the State Highways assistant engineer Senthil Kumar said: “Since we were facing a few difficulties, it was handed over to the National Highways department and once the construction gets completed we will take care of the maintenance part.”

An official from the National Highways department said due to the pandemic, the work got stopped last year. “In a few places, the encroachments are not yet removed since the land has proper documents and we can start the work only after paying the compensation. The work is in progress and soon the construction work will get over and the whole 18-km stretch will be converted into a four-lane road,” the official said.