The Chennai Corporation will kick start road improvement work including the grid system of roads for the newly added areas under the mega city development mission this week.
All the roads under this project will use plastic as an additional binding material and the new initiative will cover a distance of 175 km in the Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Ambattur, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones.
On Tuesday, the civic body convened an emergency meeting of its standing committees on works, taxation and finance to facilitate the approval of delayed road work immediately.
The work on development of the gird system of roads, that includes streetlights, street furniture, footpaths and stormwater drains, has been divided into 31 different packages worth around Rs. 10 crore each and will be implemented at the zonal level. The work pending under the earlier initiative of relaying of plastic roads will resume this week.
Of the 79 km of bus route roads, relaying of 31 km of plastic roads has been completed. The remaining work will be completed by the end of May. However, the massive work under the mega city development mission will be completed in September. The State government has given financial approval for the grid system of roads to improve infrastructure in expanded areas of Chennai Corporation.
A total of Rs. 333.27 crore was approved for the implementation of the grid system by the Corporation. Funds available under the mega city development mission amount to around Rs. 308 crore. The remaining amount of Rs. 25.2 crore is being borne by the civic body.
The grid system focuses on clearing traffic bottlenecks around major junctions of traffic congestion in all eight zones.
The civic body had submitted the project proposals for approval to the State government last year. Initially, the total estimate for street lights, roads and garbage clearance in extended areas was around Rs. 225 crore.
The roads were shortlisted based on residents' feedback. The Corporation opted for the grid system of roads which would have an integrated development of pedestrian facilities, street lights, ducts for electrical cables and stormwater drains. As many as 360 roads in the new areas of Chennai Corporation are likely to be taken up for integrated development as part of the project.
Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructural Financial Services Limited is the nodal agency for the Chennai Mega City Development Mission.
