Chennai’s State Highways Department has floated tenders to prepare detailed project reports for widening GNT Road at Basin Bridge junction and extending the Vyasarpadi flyover towards Erukkanchery, in a move aimed at easing traffic bottlenecks on the city’s northern approach. The two DPRs are expected to cost ₹19.1 lakh each and must be completed within five months.
The department will invite fresh tenders for the actual works after the DPRs are prepared. The proposed interventions cover sections of Grand Northern Trunk Road that carry traffic on National Highway 16 through northern Chennai before the route reaches Chennai Central.
GNT Road enters the city at Madhavaram and runs for about 12km through Erukkanchery, Vyasarpadi, Basin Bridge and Wall Tax Road. Although the road is generally wide up to Erukkanchery, with some sections providing three lanes, it narrows substantially after Vyasarpadi. At parts of Wall Tax Road, the carriageway is only about one and a half lanes wide, according to the report.
The department is examining an extension of the existing grade separator beyond Vyasarpadi up to Erukkanchery. A highways official said the elevated extension could allow vehicles to cross the narrow roads below without requiring extensive land acquisition. The official said acquiring land and widening the road would be difficult, while constructing the extension would primarily require space for supporting pillars within the road corridor.
The proposal also includes widening the overbridge across Buckingham Canal as part of the Basin Bridge intervention. The department expects the work at Basin Bridge to improve movement through the four-way junction, which is one of the points where traffic converges on the route.
The road has not undergone comprehensive widening or major construction work in recent years apart from two flyovers—one at Basin Bridge and another after Erukkanchery. The Basin Bridge widening proposal had been under consideration since 2019, but the earlier plan was not implemented after the Covid-19 disruption and was subsequently abandoned, according to the highways official quoted in the report.
The DPR stage will determine the engineering design, land and structural requirements, construction scope and likely cost of the proposed works. Until the reports are completed and fresh construction tenders are issued, the department has not announced a construction start date or an implementation timeline for the flyover extension and widening works.
