2nd Palar bridge also damaged, traffic diversion causes chaos on GST road

The traffic on the GST Road near Mamandur was badly affected on Saturday following the renovation work of the Palar bridge. Earlier, the vehicles were diverted through another parallel bridge. But on Saturday, even that bridge got damaged leading to chaos.

Sources said the Palar bridges at Mamandur in Chengalpattu were constructed in 1955 and 1984. As the bridge constructed in 1955 was unable to handle the traffic, another one was constructed in 1984. Now since the first bridge got damaged, the department decided to repair and strengthen it, and closed it for traffic from Monday and the bridge constructed in 1984 had been handling the traffic.

From Monday morning, the heavy vehicles were stopped from entering the bridge and sources said the heavy vehicles from Chennai were diverted to a nearby parallel road and the vehicles which arrived from Tiruchy were diverted to Padalam, Nelvai village, Palayaseevaram and Pukuturai village. The Highways department said only heavy vehicles are being diverted from taking the bridge and all light vehicles are allowed to use the other bridge at a slow speed.

Also Read: Traffic on National Highway hit as old bridge across Palar closed for repair

However, on Saturday, the ground level bridge situated on the parallel road in which the vehicles were diverted got damaged and the heavy vehicles were unable to use the bridge. Soon the Highways department diverted vehicles through two other routes  one via Pukkathurai-Nelvoy junction and another via Chengalpattu via Meiyur. However, since both the routes are not familiar to the public, confusion prevailed and traffic was badly hit on the GST Road near Mamandur since Saturday morning.