Mega projects for T Nagar yet to start

CHENNAI: In an era of Internet and digital India, it has taken four years for Greater Chennai Corporation only to discuss problems faced by residents and motorists thronging T Nagar, the commercial hub of Chennai. At least, three mega projects  (world class pedestrian plaza near Pondy Bazaar, multi-level parking lot on Thanikachalam road and interlinking of north and south Usman road flyovers into a grade separator) all aimed to decongest T Nagar planned three years back remain on paper.

The future of these projects now remains bleak as the incumbent corporation council tenure ends this October. The only respite is that on Thursday, the corporation council gave its nod to Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Development Corporation and Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd to go in for a detailed report by a consultant as per the World bank guidelines so that they can come out with a road map to establish the much delayed and discussed projects.

 Another much delayed project is the extension of the north and south Usman road flyovers into a grade separator. Again, the corporation discussed this project in 2013 and till date the corporation has neither cancelled or kick started the project. “We were happy to read in newspapers about the much hyped plazas and interlinking of bridges, but T.Nagar has benefited nothing in the past three years”, said advocate C. R. Sridhar. Some of my clients are at T Nagar and periodically I suffer traffic snarls at T.Nagar and Broadway shuttling between High Court and T Nagar, he said adding that traffic has been an neglected issue in T Nagar.

 When contacted, a senior corporation official said the resolution, which came up on Thursday, was just an administrative clearance but the work to identity the consultants and a preliminary report in this regard were already underway. These are huge projects costing above Rs 200 crore and it requires time, the official said.