chennai the national highways authority of india nhai will soon be dismantling the existing narrow road over bridge robs at tambaram and build a wider new bridge at a cost of 257 crorethe existing structure which literally acts as the citys southern gateway has only four lanes on both sides but on an average 15 lakh vehicles use this stretch of the chennaitrichy highway nh45 road every day to facilitate this traffic the nhai had proposed to build eightlane bridge on both sidesthe bridge which will be built across the railway lines connecting tambaram and perungalathur stations has been designed in such a way allowing vehicles to travel at 65 kmph according to nhai documents the total length of the project is 24 km and work is expected to be completed before 2024 endsince there are no major roads along which the traffic can be diverted during the construction phase nhai officials said that they have planned to build a temporary diversion road before the existing rob on the lefthand side towards chengalpattu is dismantledthough tambaram residents welcome it they see it only as a shortterm solution to the growing traffic menace in the area already traffic from guindy maduaravoyal and velachery leave the city via this junction at tambaram once the tambaram eastern bypass road project which is under construction is completed traffic from thiruvanmiyur and medavakkam also will use this stretch of the national highway so mere widening of bridges and roads will not help said dayanand krishnan a residentactivist constructing an elevated corridor connecting tambaram with chengalpattu as promised by the government is the only permanent solution to this problem he said otherwise we will continue to witness travel delays while planning this corridor it is important to keep the metro rail project in mind he added at present it takes one hour to cross the 32km stretch between tambaram and chengalpet