Grand Southern Trunk Road

Grand Southern Trunk Road or National Highway 45 is one of the busiest highways in southern India. The highway starts from Kathipara junction in Guindy, a very busy confluence of five roads in southern Chennai and extends up to Theni. It connects Chennai to its airport and the southern suburbs. The two important Cities connected by this highway are Chennai and Trichy and the two important towns connected by this highway are Dindigul and Theni in Tamil Nadu. It runs for a total of 472 kilometers. The highway has a 4 lane (2 lanes each direction) system between Chennai and Tindivanam, though a complete change to 6 lanes is being planned.

Traffic

During night, the highway experiences a huge volume of traffic. On an average, around 10,000 lorries use this highway to reach Chennai every night.Fact|date=July 2008 The highway has several motels and restaurants along the entire stretch. Fatal accidents frequently happen in this highway, mostly due to irresponsible bus drivers and over-speeding lorries colliding head on. The Southern Railway line between Chennai and Trichy cuts through this highway in many places resulting in huge pile up of vehicles on both sides of the highway, especially during the night hours. In case of any mishaps on the highway, the emergency services get delayed by at least 3 - 5 hours, due to the volume of traffic.

Road Improvement Projects

In an effort to circumvent these longstanding problems, many infrastructure projects are being carried out on this highway including road over-bridges along the Chennai Meenambakkam Airport road and several rail over-bridges over the railway crossings on the highway, which can cut travel time as well as reduce traffic. The six-lane system is currently extended between Tindivanam and Trichy for a distance of around 225 km (135 miles).

Towns Connected

This highway is separated into three major segments from Chennai to Theni based on the traffic volume.

Heavy Traffic

Guindy (Chennai) - St. Thomas Mount - Meenambakkam - Tirusulam - Pallavaram - Chromepet - Tambaram - Perungalathur - Vandalur - Urapakkam - Guduvancheri - Potheri - Kattangulathur - Maraimalai Nagar - Chengelpet - Madurantakam - Dindivanam - Vikravandi - Villupuram - Ulundurpettai - Kiranur - Veppur - Ranjangudi - Perambalur - Padalur - Trichy

Moderate Traffic

Trichy - Kulattur - Manapparai - Vaiampatti - Vadamadurai - Dindigul

Low Traffic

Dindigal - Sembatti - Vattalakkundu - Periyakulam - Theni [ [http://maps.google.com Google Maps] ]

References