West Velachery residents continue to hope for a bridge.

For motorists heading from west Velachery towards the IT corridor and beyond, the Velachery bypass remains an important link.

However, the residents feel that reaching the bypass itself is an uphill task due to the narrow and winding streets.

Also, the residents of west Velachery and parts of Adambakkam who live downstream the Velachery Lake are unable to come out of their locality during the rainy season as the flooded interior roads cut off all connection to the bypass.

S. Moorthy, a resident of AGS Colony 4th Main Road, said the demand for a wide, straight road connecting the Velachery bypass road was yet to be addressed. “This is one of the main reasons that west Velachery, despite having well-developed civic infrastructure, remains backward, compared with other parts of the locality,” he added.

The construction of the southern arm of the Inner Ring Road (IRR) linking Velachery with GST Road raised a lot of hopes for the residents of west Velachery, comprising AGS Colony, Ram Nagar (North), Muruga Nagar, Saraswathi Nagar and Bhuvaneshwari Nagar of getting faster access to Velachery Main Road. However, their hopes are fading fast because of the delay in the construction of a bridge across the Veerangal Odai connecting the IRR.

Geetha Ganesh, a resident of AGS Colony, suggested two places - at Srinivasa Nagar 2nd Street and Saraswathy Nagar 7th Street (near the Puzhuthivakkam MRTS Railway Station) - where bridges could be constructed, so that residents could avoid taking a detour via Balaji Nagar Road to reach the IRR. She complained that while several bridges had been constructed linking the interior streets of Ullagaram with IRR, not even a single bridge was constructed on the northern side of the IRR.

THE HINDU