The fate of the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated link road project will be known in two or three days.
Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) held a discussion on the project that is coming up along the Cooum river, on Monday. The WRD had recently asked the NHAI to suspend work citing deviations in the alignment. The point of contention remains that the alignment of the elevated road was not along the bank of the river but on the waterway itself.
Sources in the WRD said that the pile caps constructed for the project was found to be obstructing the free flow of water in the Cooum.
This would lead to flooding during the monsoon when the rainwater discharge swells to 25,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs). Of the 14 km planned, the project has progressed to four km so far. Deviations at two points – Spurtank Road and College Road – were discussed at the meeting. The width of the river varies from 50 m to 75 m in various stretches.
A decision on the project will be taken in a few days after reviewing the documents and drawings to be produced by NHAI. The documents will have details about the approval of work area and the river width.
Sources in NHAI said that there was no deviation from the original alignment. No construction has come up on the river bed.
In some stretches, there were no proper demarcations of the river bank. This may perhaps have given an impression that the alignment had moved away from its approved route, they said.
