The Tamil Nadu Highways Department has announced the construction of a new steel bridge over the Buckingham Canal that will link Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) with East Coast Road (ECR), significantly easing travel for residents in southern Chennai. The proposed bridge will connect the localities of Thoraipakkam and Neelankarai, bringing much-needed relief to commuters who currently rely on limited connecting points between the two arterial roads.A tender has been floated for building a 36-meter-long, six-lane high-level steel bridge. The project, estimated to cost Rs 37 crore, will include small vehicular underpasses, bund roads for smoother traffic movement, and approach roads on either side of the canal. The Inland Waterways Authority of India has issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC), confirming that the bridge design allows boat navigation with a vertical clearance of 4 meters above the canal’s maximum flood level of 2.70 meters.
The link road, which spans 1.4 kilometers, will begin at Neelankarai on the ECR, cross the Buckingham Canal, and pass through Thoraipakkam before connecting with the OMR-Pallavaram Thoraipakkam Radial Road Junction. In the first phase, 850 meters of the link road from the OMR side has already been completed. To facilitate the next phase, encroachments on Water Resources Department land will be cleared, and affected residents will be resettled by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB).
Currently, OMR and ECR are connected only through Thiruvanmiyur and Sholinganallur, which are around 11 km apart. Once this new link road is completed, it will provide a direct connection between ECR and several key Chennai roads such as GST Road, Mount-Madipakkam Road, and Velachery-Tambaram Road. Officials say the bridge will shorten travel time for ECR residents heading towards central Chennai and reduce traffic congestion by diverting nearly 40% of the vehicles from the busy OMR-Pallavaram Thoraipakkam Radial Road Junction and other bottleneck areas like Sholinganallur and Thiruvanmiyur.