Elephant Gate bridge in north Chennai will be ready by July

CHENNAI: Relief from traffic congestion may soon be in sight for north Chennai commuters, with the city corporation and Southern Railway expected to finish construction of the Elephant Gate bridge by July.
Greater Chennai Corporation will evict 45 families living along the slopes of the bridge. S Devendiran, Superintending Engineer, Regional Deputy Commissioner’s Office (north), said all the evicted families would be given alternate accommodation.
The railways has constructed a part of the over-bridge, while the corporation would begin construction of the entry and exit slopes.“Once the eviction is done, we will construct the slopes. Work to construct storm water drains is on,” he said.
The 32.95 crore bridge reconstruction, done on a 50-50 sharing basis between railways and the corporation kicked off in 2019 and the bridge demolished later that year.
However, there was not much progress until 2021 due to issues with shifting underground electrical lines.
Once the bridge is completed, traffic from Mint towards Central railway station on one side and Vyasarpadi on the other is expected to become smoother. Currently, snarls during peak hours last up to 1 hour.
Without the Elephant Gate bridge, commuters heading towards Central need to take a 2-km detour either through Wall Tax Road or through Basin Bridge via Raja Muthiah Salai. The bridge is also crucial for vendors and small-scale traders ferrying goods from Wall Tax Road to Choolai.
Minister K N Nehru, who visited the site on Wednesday, said construction would be completed before the July 19 deadline.“The railways had issues with bridge alignment and said they will finish it by July. We will also finish it by July,” he said.