The Hindu 16.09.2010
East Kalmandapam Road to be opened to traffic soon
N. Anand
CHENNAI: East Kalmandapam Road will be opened for vehicular traffic soon as the road is fully redone, said Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni on Wednesday.The reopening of the East Kalmandapam Road will ease traffic congestion at Gate 1 of Chennai Port Trust, since Gate 2A was closed on June 18 for heavy vehicles. Currently, Gate 1 handles both export and import container-laden vehicles against Gate 2A that permitted exit of imported containers.
According to sources, the continuous container lorry traffic led to caving-in of the road that resulted in damaging the 30-year-old stormwater drain. Chennai Port Trust immediately closed Gate 2A and diverted the container vehicles towards Gate 1.
As repeated requests by the Chennai Port Trust officials and Port users failed to yield the desired result, they approached Mr. Lakhoni, who directed officials to set right the road at the earliest.The 30-feet road was reduced to a narrow strip and it took nearly three months for the Corporation officials to rectify the damaged road as it had an archaic stormwater drain and the flow of sewage water was continuous. A concrete slab was placed a few weeks ago and the road will be levelled soon.
Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Lakhoni said “a concrete slab has been placed and the road will be ready by Friday. We are laying new stormwater drains in Royapuram covering about 21-km stretch and are replacing the old ones.”
