The Hindu : TNRDC to take up work on six-lane expressway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

TNRDC to take up work on six-lane expressway

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI APRIL 7 . The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), a joint venture enterprise, will take up the Rs. 70-crore project of laying a six-lane expressway from the Madhya Kailash temple on Sardar Patel Road to the East Coast Road, the Public Works and Highways Minister, O. Paneerselvam, told the Assembly today.

This is in response to the long-standing demand of the IT industry to develop the existing road. A special purpose vehicle (SPV), called IT Expressway Limited, will be constituted for the project execution. To be implemented on a public-private partnership model, the project will be carried out, following "international standards", the Minister stated, initiating a debate on the demands for the Highways department.

The Government decided to obtain a loan of Rs. 200 crores from the HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) for constructing road overbridges (ROBs)/road underbridges (RUBs) in six places between Beach and Tambaram railway stations. The works would form part of the gauge conversion project.

As for the ROB work at the MIT Gate near Chromepet railway station, it "could be completed" in the current financial year.

For completing residual works in the Chennai Inner Ring Road project, the HUDCO sanctioned a loan of Rs. 65 crores, of which around Rs. 28 crores had been drawn. Land acquisition for 5-km roads was now in an advanced stage. An outlay of Rs. 22.7 crores had been made for the current year.

On the transfer of Chennai Corporation's roads to the Highways department, the Minister said this had to be done as "the previous DMK regime failed to maintain the city roads". Various roads, having a length of about 80 km, had now been brought under the jurisdiction of the department. "The execution of improvement works, estimated to cost Rs. 29 crores, has commenced," he informed the House.

On Chennai-specific works under the Public Works Department, the Minister said the outlay for rehabilitation and reclamation of the city waterways was fixed at Rs. 23 crores. To mitigate floods in the western parts of the city, the Virugambakkam-Arumbakkam canal would be improved at a cost of Rs. 3.3 crores. The Government sanctioned Rs. 6.3 crores for Velachery in the south, and Rs. 85 lakhs for Otteri Nullah in the north.

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