East Coast Road (ECR) could be developed as an Economic Corridor in the event of State Government handing over the stretch to the Centre for conversion into a four-lane National Highway, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping said here on Thursday.
Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman had already discussed with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa the scope for extending the proposed Vizag-Chennai Corridor up to Colachel in Kanyakumari, Mr. Pon. Radhakrishnan told reporters. There were several locations of tourism importance along the ECR. Four-laning of the Chennai-Colachel stretch will decongest traffic along the Tiruchi-Tindivanam route.
The proposed Colachel Commercial Port will result in uniform economic progress of all the Southern districts. Tamil Nadu will have the distinction of being the only State with four major ports. Colachel port, in particular, will be patronised more since exporters will be able to send their consignments directly to destinations of their choice, the Minister said.
Existence of Colachel and Vizhinjam International Seaport within 30 km distance of one another will augur well for catering to the ever-increasing density of cargo movement, Mr. Radhakrishnan said. Extent of representation from Tamil Nadu in the cabinet was immaterial; sanction of projects by the Central government for progress of the State matters the most, the Minister said, replying to another question. Any new scheme by neighbouring States that impacts the water sources in Tamil Nadu was not acceptable, he said, when asked about Andhra Pradesh’s move to construct a check dam across Palar river. The Minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling a 50-year-old demand for renaming Madras High Court as Chennai High Court.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said the Tamil Nadu government must galvanise its intelligence machinery for removing fear psychosis from the people in the backdrop of recent instances of murders and the detection of the alleged presence of ISIS extremists.
