An online petition has been doing the rounds of Mylapore on the Corporation proposal to build a flyover at the Mandaveli bus terminus junction. The petition asks the Mayor not to go ahead with the project, saying it will be a white elephant and not serve much purpose.
The introduction of the petition states that ‘Venkatakrishna Road has always been a quiet vicinity in Mandaveli in spite of a few commercial buildings that have cropped up recently. ‘The road is capable of managing the traffic as it is. Introducing a flyover here and thereby cutting the few old trees that are still surviving will not be of much help in decongesting the adjacent areas. The real traffic problem is on R. K. Mutt Road and the solution must be sought at the point of the problem.
‘The source of any future traffic growth will again only be on R.K.Mutt Road as it connects Luz, Mylapore and Manadaveli to areas further down in south Chennai..’ reads the statement.
The online appeal is ‘from residents on Venkatakrishna Road to the deciding authorities to leave things as they are and not create a white elephant (in the form of a flyover) in the name of modernisation of Chennai. The Corporation of Chennai may be under compulsion to use allocated funds within a particular time span.
The statement adds. ‘Our request is to go ahead and utilize this purposefully by:
– removing encroachments on the roadsides
– curtailing unauthorised and haphazard car parking
– improving traffic control by enforcing existing one-way road rules
Our request is to NOT waste taxpayers’ money on a project that will be underutilized and cause further traffic disruptions and cause untold misery for its residents.
