In an attempt to ease congestion caused by lorries that deliver and collect cargo from the city sea ports, the State government is planning to create a container terminal in Ennore.
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority will develop the terminal on a vacant piece of land where Tamil Nadu Housing Board once had its cellular concrete plant, official sources said.
Though there are 37 container freight stations around the city fringes, the container lorry drivers park their vehicles along roads leading to Chennai Port, resulting in traffic pile ups. Lorries use only the service lane of Ennore High Road, but in the event of even a minor accident, motorists suffer, said S. Purushothaman, a government employee and an Ennore resident.
While confirming the terminal proposal, officials at CMDA said all container lorries could use the proposed facility, irrespective of whether they were heading to Chennai or Ennore Ports. TNHB has close to 30 acres of vacant opposite Ennore Thermal Power Plant and the recent proposal is to use about 18 acres for the terminal. TNHB established the ‘cellular concrete’ plant in 1972 with technical assistance from Poland, officials in the Board told The Hindu . The plant functioned to its full capacity for 15 years before production stopped in 1992.
Efforts to revive the plant and manufacture bricks using flyash from Ennore power plant were made in 2007, but failed and the abandoned plant was demolished a few years ago, officials added.
