The toll plaza at Vanagaram on the Chennai elevated bypass, connecting Madhavaram to Irumbuliyur, will be removed. A new plaza will come up near Thiruneermalai.
Official sources in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said this was being done owing to increased urbanisation near Vanagaram. There were also demands to remove the plaza since the locality was being added to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
Tenders to construct the new plaza, and dismantle the present one had been called, and are being processed. It would take around six months for the new plaza to be completed. Along with the toll plaza, the construction of a vehicular underpass (VUP) at Vanagaram will also be taken up, and it will take about a year to be completed. The combined cost of the two works is around ₹50 crore, the sources said.
The VUP was necessitated due to heavy local traffic using the main carriageway for crossing to the other side, leading to accidents when slow-moving vehicles cross the path. The access-controlled 32-km long bypass road, which was constructed in two phases, sees around 60,000 passenger car units or around 1 lakh vehicles every day.
Lakshmi Sivaramakrishnan, resident of Vanagaram, said that moving the plaza out of their neighbourhood was better. The service lanes are one-ways on both sides. If I have to go to Porur from Vanagaram, I have to take a left before the toll [plaza], and travel further. The U-turn is very close to the toll [plaza], and all the traffic, shops, restaurants and buses make our lives hell. The traffic is horrible and it doesn’t matter that there are two additional lanes.”
Jude Mathew of the Tamil Nadu Independent Rental Vehicle Owners’ and Drivers’ Association welcomed the move, and called for steps to shift plazas at Nallur, Surapattu and Manjambakkam further up their respective national highways. “This road connects places like Ambattur, which is already a part of the [Greater] Chennai Corporation and MTC buses ply on it. In such a case, tolling should be removed completely,” he said.
Published - February 05, 2025 01:07 am IST
