Residents living along the busy Chennai Tirupathi High (CTH) Road from Padi to Thiruninravur have urged Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to direct the Highways Department to take up widening of the 22-km road.

The road, with its many junctions, turns and curves, and thousands of commercial establishments and industrial units, remains a four-lane wide facility since 2013, though more than 1.5 lakh vehicles use it every day.

“On busy days, it takes us nearly two hours to cover the stretch. Motorists cannot travel at more than 30 kmph on this narrow road. Smaller vehicles have to jostle for space with the heavy trucks that use this road from the industrial units in Ambattur, Padi and nearby industrial estates. Accidents are common on this road as there is not enough policing,” said R. Raghunathan, a resident of Ambattur.

Consumer activist and Pattabiram resident T. Sadagopan said roads such as OMR, ECR, and the Thoraipakkam-Pallavaram Radial Road had taken much less time to widen. “Though this road connects us to Tirupati, an important temple town in the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh, we do not have a single bus service to that State on this road. You can also see raw sewage flowing along this State Highway,” he said.

“Every day, new commercial establishments are coming up on both sides. But no provisions are being made for creating parking spaces. As a result, vehicles are parked haphazardly in front of these establishments. We do not think any planning permissions are being granted to these shops. Construction has been taken up at locations where the Highways Department had made markings,” he added.

Saravanan, a resident of Ambattur, said the road did not have a proper stormwater drain and many stretches were flooded during rain. “Only haphazard work is taken up to restore normalcy. Every election, we raise the issue of widening this road, but nothing happens. Local traders have been objecting to the widening, and the Highways Department has been just about maintaining the road,” he said.

The stretch, which was part of the Chennai-Tirupati National Highway, was handed over to the State Highways Department by the National Highways Authority of India, which said widening it would not be possible because of urbanisation.

In April 2013, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced that the road would be widened into a six-lane facility. The State government also allocated ₹168 crore for land acquisition. In December 2013, the Highways Department took up work to widen the road end to end wherever land was available, at a cost of ₹98 crore. The road has remains largely unchanged since then.

Highways Department sources said the proposal to widen the road was under active consideration.