more-in Work on yet another 3-lane uni-directional flyover on the GST Road at Pallavaram is progressing well. The ?69-crore facility that will allow vehicles from the Tambaram side to proceed to the airport will be nearly 1.4 km long and would take nearly 20 months to be completed. Sources in Highways Department, which is constructing the flyover, said that of the 48 piles, 21 had been constructed, over which 20 columns were up and 10 pier caps ready. “We have constructed two deck slabs of the total 48 and work is progressing according to the plan chartered out. The department has written to the traffic police seeking diversion of vehicles on the stretch. We have laid the interior roads through which the diversions are planned in such a manner that they can take the traffic,” explained a source. For now, the police is diverting traffic whenever necessary and at other times, allows traffic to move slowly. Monday mornings are the worst since school and office-goers are in a hurry. “By the time you reach the airport, motorists get really frustrated since there is not much space on GST Road now. The space inside the bus bays in Pallavaram has been usurped by shops and buses stop on the GST Road itself, which takes away yet another lane. If those encroachments are removed, it will help ease traffic,” said M. Dhananjayan, a trader on Indira Gandhi Road in Pallavaram. The department has strengthened the Old Trunk Road and taken permission from the Cantonment and laid Kundrathur Road after removing encroachments on the sides. What was a 25-ft road is now 40 ft wide. On completion, the facility would help motorists cross three junctions — Kundrathur Road, Pallavaram Shanty Road and the Alstom Signal — with ease. Over 2.25 lakh vehicles use the GST Road on a daily basis.

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