Just at the south-western edge of the city, this road finally begins justifying its fancy name. For a fair stretch, as it struggles to get out of the city, the Grand Southern Trunk Road appears to be neither grand nor a trunk road. But leaving Tambaram behind, it climbs up to the NH (National Highway) 45 and screams away to the cities of south Tamil Nadu, finally taking the opportunity of showing off its adjectives. But if you want to stay up north, you can drift left to the curve that takes you northbound and get on to the Chennai Bypass. And then, you can skirt along the western edge and choose to get back in to the city at Porur. Or you could go all the way to Maduraivoyal before making a decision to either go further west, on to Bangalore or to turn east and go up Poonamallee High Road all the way to Fort St George. What would you choose to do today?
If you come into Chennai by air, your drive to the city will almost invariably face a bottleneck at the Kathipara junction. That's the point where the Grand Southern Trunk Road, Mount Poonamallee Road and the Jawaharlal Nehru Road meet up. But the bottleneck is not just about traffic; the grade separator at this junction, though nearly complete, currently contributes to a small part of the holdup. A small part, now that the free-flow link between JN Road and GST Road has been open for a month. This photo was taken when going under that link, towards JN Road. In less than a year, those mounds of earth would have been replaced by greenery; all the links are expected to be operational before April 2009. And then, one can whiz through from the airport into the city in no time at all!(Oh, yes. Traffic volume will still be a factor in your whizzing.) 
