Chennai: After nearly five years, work for the pedestrian plaza in T.Nagar was kickstarted as minister for municipal administration S.P. Velumani laid the ceremonial foundation stone for the swanky project, on Monday, thanks to Smart City Mission.
The Rs 33.80 crore project, aims at ensuring safety of pedestrians and continuous walkways without gaps to help senior citizens, disabled and children to walk safely.
“The project includes upgradation of 1,675m of Thiyagaraya Road between Panagal Park and Anna Salai,” the Chennai corporation statement said.
Velumani told journalists that the project would be completed in a year. State fisheries minister D. Jayakumar also participated in the inauguration event.
To mitigate traffic congestion during the construction works, the project would be completed in three phases.
The Reach-1 of the project extends from Panagal Park to Thanikachalam Road (730m) and Reach-2 extends from Thanikachalam Road to Boag Road Junction (380m). Reach-3 will extend to Anna Salai from Boag Road Junction (565m).
Although the proposal for the formation of the pedestrian plaza was there for more than five years, the project remained a non-starter due to funds crunch. With the smart city funds pouring in, the civic body has converted many old projects into smart city projects.
Meanwhile, Chennai corporation, under Smart City Mission had installed 1,772 LED street lights in T. Nagar and introduced Namma Chennai App for receiving civic complaints.
