Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Manmohan to lay stone for elevated corridor

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Ahead of schedule: Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu inaugurating the new Coleroon river bridge in Tiruchi on Thursday.

TIRUCHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone for the four-lane elevated corridor between War Memorial and Maduravoyal in Chennai on January 8 in the presence of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

Disclosing this here on Thursday, Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu said the corridor would be built at a cost of Rs.1,600 crore.

He said Mr. Karunanidhi would declare open the Indian Maritime University in Chennai on December 31 and lay the foundation stone for an administrative building of the university. About 300 acres of land had been acquired for creating infrastructure for the university that included a maritime museum, an art gallery, an aquarium and a convention centre with a seating capacity of 15,000.

Mr. Baalu was speaking after dedicating to the nation the new Coleroon River Bridge on the Tindivinam-Tiruchi section of the Tiruchi-Chennai National Highway (NH 45). The bridge, running to a length of 878 metres, has been built at an approximate cost of Rs.35 crore.

The Minister said about Rs.51,300-crore worth of road and port development works had been taken up in Tamil Nadu under the Central government projects. Though it was the National Democratic Alliance government that had launched the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South/East-West Corridor projects, a major portion of the work was executed by the present government. “Not even 40 per cent of the works under the Golden Quadrilateral were executed by the previous government. We have executed 60 per cent of the project work and just 130 km remains to be developed,” he said.

Similarly, under the North-South/East-West corridor project, only five per cent of the works were executed by the previous government. Currently about 40 per cent of the project works were completed and there had been some delay due to problems in land acquisition in Orissa, Bihar and a few other States. Phase-III to VII of the National Highways Development Programme were launched by the UPA government, bringing in an investment of Rs.2,35,690 crore.

Mr. Baalu disclosed that the new bridge constructed across the railway level crossing at Lalapet near Karur would be opened on January 11. The new bridge coming up across the Cauvery river near Tiruchi had been slightly delayed due to the rains and would be opened in the third week of January. The fly-over at Perambalur Road junction on the Tiruchi-Chennai highway would also be opened in the third week of January

S.K. Puri, Member (Technical), National Highways Authority of India, said the Coleroon bridge was built in 22 months, six months ahead of schedule.

The bridge was part of the 204 km-long Tindivanam-Tiruchi-Dindigul section being developed at a cost of Rs.1,260 crore.

The stretch included four by-pass roads at Villupuram, Tindivanam, Samayapuram and Ulundurpet and two of them had already been completed.

Ashok Wasson, Member, NHAI, expressed confidence that the four-lane project on the entire section would be completed ahead of schedule.

Mayor Sarubala R. Tondaiman and MLA M. Rajasekaran spoke.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

On a constructive path now
Football tourney from tomorrow
Manmohan to lay stone for elevated corridor
34 Myanmarese Tamils’ descendants in a fix
1.9 lakh saplings planted
Use of non-conventional energy stressed
Pension for sportsmen
“Cater to changing needs”

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu