The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), the managing associate of Chennai’s Outer Ring Road (ORR) project, is currently evaluating bids for phase two of the project.
According to sources, three Hyderabad-based companies had participated in the bid for the Rs. 985-crore 30-km long project from Nemilicheri to Minjur. Phase two, which starts at Nemilicheri, crosses the Chennai- Bangalore railway line and Chennai Tiruvallur High Road. It passes through several villages including Mittanamallee, Morai, Attanthangal, Padiyanallur, Kandigai.
“We will scrutinise the bids and send the final name to the State government who will decide. It is a huge project, so we cannot decide,” said a source.
Already 17 km of road under the first phase (which costs Rs. 1081 crore) running from Vandalur to Nemilicheri is ready.
The ORR will connect Vandalur on NH 45 in the south with Minjur on Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti Road north of Chennai. The alignment crosses existing railway lines at Vandalur and Nemilichery and major rivers of Adyar, Cooum and Kosathalayar.
Phase I of the semi-circular corridor, that has space allotted for commercial development and a BRTS service, got delayed due to land acquisition and obtaining of permission from the National Highways Authority of India and the Southern Railway.
It has been 2.5 years since the project was started. The road work is expected to be completed by June 2013 and the interchanges (usually installed at road junctions with a grade separator and ramps to permit traffic on the highway to pass through the junction without cutting across any other traffic stream) will be ready by March 2014.
Work across railway tracks are being taken up at Nemilicheri and at Vandalur. “TNRDC will take up the works. We are paying the Southern Railway supervision and land usage charges,” the source said.
The road has eight vehicular underpasses, 18 pedestrian underpasses, three major bridges, three interchanges (at Vandalur, Nemilichery and Nazarathpet) and three flyovers, 100 box culverts and two minor bridges. So far, all vehicular, pedestrian underpasses and minor bridges have been completed.
A total of 25 lakh tonnes of aggregate and 60 lakh cubic metre of earth would be used in the ongoing green field project. The concessionaire will manage the road for a period of 17.5 years.
