After seven long years of legal wrangling, construction of the second arm of the Madakulam-TVS Nagar road overbridge towards Jaihindpuram started on Friday.

Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan inaugurated the ₹16.62-crore work of constructing the arm for 251 meters. Construction of the road overbridge connecting Madakulam and TVS Nagar was completed in 2015.

However, the construction of the two-way second arm towards Jaihindpuram could not be taken up as some residents of Jaihindpuram moved court over land acquisition. As a result, the work, after the construction of four of the 12 piers, was suspended.

After settling the legal battle, NABARD and the Rural Roads Wing of the State Highways acquired 1,357 square meters of land to construct the arm along with an approach road for 105 meters. Besides, service roads on both sides would be laid for 320 meters.

In order to enable two-way traffic on both the TVS Nagar arm and the Jaihindpuram arm, junction improvement work would be taken up in the middle of the bridge. The junction improvement work would also be taken up on the Madakulam side for smooth vehicle movement.

The work is expected to be completed in 18 months. Once the second arm is constructed, vehicles from Madakulam could directly reach the airport road without any hassle.

Mayor Indirani Ponvasanth, Corporation Commissioner Simranjeet Singh Kahlon, Superintending Engineer (NABARD and Rural Roads Wing) M.P. Vijayalakshmi, Divisional Engineer Mohana Gandhi, Assistant Divisional Engineer R. Sukumar, and Assistant Engineer M. Balaji were present.