Government to soon develop road networks along Outer Ring Road

Study on design and land acquisition will be taken up shortly

The State government on Wednesday announced that a detailed project report will soon be prepared for the development of grid roads along the Chennai Outer Ring Road (ORR).

It has sanctioned Rs. 5.22 crore for the study that will look into various aspects including alignment, design and land acquisition for the 62 km-long project that is being developed in two phases. Construction is presently on for the 30 km stretch of the ORR from Vandalur to Nemilichery, which forms the first phase. The financial bids for the second phase from Nemilichery to Minjur in the north are currently being scrutinised.

Meanwhile, the highways department and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) have jointly identified 18 road networks to be developed on either side of ORR. This project would involve acquisition of 240 hectares of land and cost about Rs. 700 crore. This cost does not include the cost of land acquisition.

The proposed grid would later be extended to the second phase of the ORR and a similar road network would also be developed on either side of Rajiv Gandhi Salai or OMR.

The government is considering adopting the Gujarat land-pooling model instead of wholesale land acquisition, the officials said. Under the Gujarat land-pooling scheme, landowners would temporarily handover the land to the authorities who would then form the road work, develop the infrastructure and return the reconfigured land to the owners.

The compensation for the land used for the roads would be adjusted against the development charges to be paid by the owners and the balance compensation amount, if any, would be given by the government.

The government had taken up the road grid project following criticism that development in Chennai has been inefficient since it is limited only to the edges of major transport corridors, leaving the interior pockets undeveloped. Lack of road network is leading to an urban sprawl, many experts had complained.

In 2010, the Chennai Comprehensive Transportation Study had pointed out that the city has a ‘radial-circumferential arrangement of road network,’ and by developing the missing links and ‘suitably combining the north-south and east-west aligned section’, an efficient grid pattern could be formed.

Once the grids are in place, it would enable organised development to percolate beyond the edges of the corridors and lead to a compact settlement, the planners expect.