Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation has put on hold the Valluvar Kottam flyover project for the ongoing Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) construction work there. Corporation commissioner J Kumaragurubaran said it would be difficult to start the construction because of the traffic diversions at Kodambakkam and Nungambakkam, that are to remain until 2028.
The civic body will widen Kodambakkam High Road and Valluvar Kottam road to ease traffic congestion at the busy four-way junction. “Land acquisition for the road widening is already in progress and is expected to be completed by the end of 2025,” he said.

The 570-metre-long, four-lane flyover project was announced in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2022, but it faced delays due to difficulties in acquiring about 2,000 square metres of private land. The flyover was planned to connect Palmgrove Hotel with the Kodambakkam potters’ area. The total cost of the project, including land acquisition, was expected to be more than 200 crore.
The delay, officials said, will help in improving its design. Officials are now looking at extending the Valluvar Kottam flyover to Park Hotel junction, with a circular rotunda in the centre. “If we do this, the four-way junction will be cleared, and we won’t need another flyover to decongest the stretch from Park Hotel junction to Valluvar Kottam,” an official from the department of bridges said.
The corporation is also working on removing encroachments, including a temple, to make way for the road work. The Kodambakkam highway is currently one-way, but vehicles from Gemini junction use this as a two-way road to reach T Nagar, Kodambakkam and Nungambakkam areas. And, encroachments at the junction cause severe bottlenecks.
In 2014, a different flyover was proposed to connect Thirumalai Pillai Road with Poonamallee High Road near Ega Theatre with an estimated cost of 1,000 crore. This was cancelled due to concerns that it would cause traffic congestion in other areas. “The junction is one of the main roads. Although the road widening will cause traffic jams and take time to complete, it will be a good solution in the long run,” said a resident of the Nungambakkam Lake area, V Parithi.