Chennai: Traffic chaos has become a daily ordeal for residents of Pattabiram, particularly school students, owing to the prolonged delay in completing the second arm of the Pattabiram road overbridge (ROB) on the busy Chennai-Tirupati NH 205.The original plan envisaged a 780m-long, 11m-wide, six-lane bridge. The bridge, which connects Pattabiram and Thiruninravur, is used by more than one lakh commuters daily. However, only one arm—5.5m-wide and leading towards Thiruninravur—was opened to two-way traffic in Sept 2024. The second arm, towards Pattabiram, remains incomplete.
As a result, vehicles are forced to use the single operational arm, causing severe congestion during peak hours. Residents say travel time has increased significantly. “It gets worse if a vehicle breaks down on the flyover,” said T Sadagopan, a civic activist from the locality.The situation is compounded by a narrow junction near the Pattabiram police station on CTH Road. Buses struggle to enter the narrow service road leading to the bus terminus located beneath the flyover.A Roy Rosario, founder of People’s Voice Federation, said there is no provision on CTH Road for heavy vehicles to take U-turn, except at Nemilichery intersection of 400-Ft Outer Ring Road and near a few petrol pumps. “This hampers efforts to restore bus routes from Pattabiram to Sriperumbudur and Minjur via Outer Ring Road.”Rosario said the issue could be resolved by constructing a roundabout near the Pattabiram Police Station to enable buses to take U-turns more easily and reduce commuter waiting times.He alleged that the highways department provided contradictory responses to his RTI queries. “In 2024, officials said the proposed roundabout would be constructed shortly. However, in a 2025 reply, the department said no funds had been sanctioned for the project,” he said.The state government allocated 78.35 crore for the ROB project in 2022, which has already been spent. An additional 13.5 crore has now been sanctioned to complete the remaining work. Despite repeated attempts, highways department officials were unavailable for comment.
