A fortnight after it was thrown open to the public, the Rs. 56 crore flyover beneath the Chennai Metro Rail line at Vadapalani junction on Jawaharlal Nehru Main Road is not being fully utilised, as all Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses coming from Ashok Nagar and going towards Koyambedu skip the ramp of the flyover. They halt at the bus stop located beneath the flyover near the Vadapalani Junction abutting a police station. As a result, there is no let-up in the traffic problem at the junction, for which the flyover was built, say commuters.
Interestingly, as most of the south-bound buses attached to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) also drop long-distance passengers at the bus stop near the junction, these State-run buses too go beneath the flyover on JN Main Road and avoid taking the flyover. “Despite having a flyover now, there is no noticeable improvement at the traffic signal as buses continue to ply beneath the facility,” says K. Ramesh, a motorist from Virugambakkam.
State Highways Department officials say that every day more than 1.85 lakh vehicles using JN Main Road cross this junction. Likewise, more than 40,000 vehicles use Arcot Road which intersects PH Road at the junction. Due to Chennai Metro Rail work going on for the last few years, waiting time for vehicles varied from half-an-hour to 90 minutes during peak hours, between the MMDA signal and the Vadapalani junction.
Motorists and residents say MTC should relocate the bus stop a few hundred metres from the existing spot on JN Main Road ensuring buses can use the ramp after halting at the bus stop on the stretch. Commuters too feel the existing location of the bus stop is narrow due to the presence of many commercial buildings near the junction whereas the stretch before the ramp of the flyover is wide and have enough space for buses to halt. They have also said this will reduce traffic chaos at the junction and allow vehicles beneath the flyover to travel without halting at the signal, except when pedestrians are crossing.
“The decision to re-locate the bus stop should be taken by senior officials at Pallavan House,” said an MTC official.
The new bi-directional flyover, which is jointly constructed by Chennai Metro Rail and the State Highways Department, provides connectivity between Koyambedu and Ashok Nagar, which is a distance of around 4 km, on the JN Main Road. On the other hand, vehicles on Arcot Road can pass through without waiting at the signal at the junction. The project was mooted in 2005-06 but got the nod from the State government only in 2011. However, with the start of Chennai Metro Rail work the same year for its first service between Koyambedu and Alandur, the flyover project was put in cold storage. There were land acquisition problems, with a few land owners going to court. Finally, the flyover work was started only in December 2014, a decade after the project was originally proposed.
