Virus shuts down work on 6 flyovers across city

Work on six flyovers – at Velachery, Vijayanagar junction; Pallavaram, GST Road; CMBT-Kaliamman Koil Street, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai; Retteri junction; Medavakkam on VelacheryTambaram High Road; and Kilkattali at the junction of ThoraipakkamPallavaram Radial road and Medavakkam main road – began between September 2015 and February 2017. After missing several deadlines, the projects were scheduled to be completed one after another this year but came to a standstill with the suspension of works.

Of the six, one on GST road near Pallavaram is running 20 months behind schedule and was supposed to be opened last month.

“We had planned for opening the three-lane unidirectional flyover by end of March when the lockdown was announced. We have completed over 95 per cent of the works. Only the approach road on the Tambaram side of the flyover is pending. Once the lockdown is lifted, we will complete the remaining works in two weeks and open the flyover,” an official with the Highways department said.

The works on the Retteri flyover on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai and Kilkattalai flyover on ThoraipakkamPallavaram Radial Road and Medavakkam Main Road junction were expected to be completed by May this year while CMBT-Kaliyamman Koil road flyover, which is causing congestion along Koyambedu stretch was scheduled to be completed by June. The twin flyover on Velachery and Medavakkam flyovers, which were facing land acquisition problems were expected to be completed by December.

The official said the biggest challenge was restarting the work after the lifting of the lockdown and maintaining a steady pace of construction. “Almost all contractors engage migrant workers. Many of them have left for their native places,” said the official, adding even if the lockdown is lifted, the contractors would not have enough manpower to commence the works in full scale.

“All the works are going to be delayed further by one or two months. If the lockdown gets further extended, the works also will get delayed further,” he said.