Difficult journey for motorists on the Chennai-Tada National Highway – The New Indian Express

Express news service

CHENNAI: Motorists traveling to Vijayawada, Kalahasthi and Tada on National Road 5 Chennai-Kolkata are undergoing a lot of hardship as incomplete widening works between Chennai and Tada have left the road in poor condition.

The problems with the Chennai-Tada NH road are numerous, motorists say. Suddenly narrowing the width of the road in several places, congested intersections, potholes and mud accumulated on the road pose a huge risk. Poor maintenance of the sidings and the lack of emergency patrol vehicles and ambulances add to the woes.

“We haven’t seen an ambulance on the national highway on the road for two years now. Four days ago, around 11:00 p.m., a car fell into a pit at the Chengalamman Koil junction in Karanodai. Four people in the car were rescued by a truck driver after smashing the car windows. It took ambulance 108 about an hour to reach the place. There is not a single ambulance at the toll plaza or a patrol vehicle. Until a 24-hour ambulance service and a patrol vehicle are provided, the NHAI should stop collecting the toll, ”said S Kalyanam, a resident of Alinjikuppam.

Traffic of heavy industrial trucks and cars from Red Hills, Madhavaram, Perambur and Ambattur is disrupted at the intersections of Karanodai and Alinjikuppam as the four-lane road narrows into a single lane, with a curve. “Near Karanodai, the road is in poor condition with a sharp bend. Motorists going to Kalahasthi Temple, who do not know the route, encounter accidents here. At rush hour, there is an accumulation of vehicles for up to three kilometers, ”said motorist S Kannan, from the village of Nallur.

Poor road maintenance has not spared two-wheelers either. Mud makes the road slippery from Madhavaram to the Ponneri junction. “Dusty roads have made traveling a nightmare for the past 10 days,” added S Hameed, another frequent traveler.

The work to widen the 43.34 km section between Chennai Madhavaram and Tada to a six-lane track was sanctioned in February 2009 at a cost of 418 crore under the Design Build Finance Operate Transfer (DBFOT) model for a period 20 years old. The toll was opened in April 2009. Larsen and Toubro, the project’s executive agency, has maintained the road since then.

Although the road has been widened to six lanes for about 60% of the distance, works to widen the road from Madhavaram to Nallur have been blocked due to land acquisition issues.

As the excessive delay increased the costs of the project, L&T terminated the project in 2015. Then the road went from bad to worse. According to road records, the road receives about 55,000 vehicles per day.

When contacted, NHAI officials told Express that an ongoing affair between them and L&T would end soon. “To compensate for the land acquisition and the escalating cost of the project, we asked the government for 378 crores. As soon as the funds are received, work will resume, ”they said.