Sriperumbudur-Karaipettai NH six-laning stuck as thermal plants refuse free fly ash supply

CHENNAI: The refusal from thermal power plants owned and operated by State and central utilities has brought the work on the long-pending project to widen the Sriperumbudur-Walajahpet stretch of the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway into six lanes to a grinding halt.

The project involves widening the 70-km four-lane stretch from Sriperumbudur to Walajahpet of the NH-4 into a six-lane road in two packages - 34 km Sriperumbudur to Karaipettai and 36 km Karaipettai to Walajahpet. Both the packages, for which work commenced in 2019, were scheduled to be completed in 2021.

The work on the Karaipettai to Walajahpet stretch has achieved nearly 75 per cent physical progress and is scheduled to be completed by March 2025. However, the work on the Sriperumbudur to Karaipettai section has achieved only 57 per cent physical progress.

A senior NHAI official told DT Next that the existing contract for the Rs 819 crore Sriperumbudur - Karaipettai section would be foreclosed and fresh tender for the remaining works would be invited in two to three months.

The main bottleneck that it is facing now is the Tangedco and NTPC thermal power plants refusing to supply fly ash free of cost, which has prompted the contractor to refuse to continue the work, as it would result in additional expenditure, the official said.

This despite the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change mandating thermal power plants to supply fly ash to the site free of cost for the construction of roads and flyover embankments.

S Yuvaraj, president, Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners Federation, said the six-laning of the stretch has been dragging for more than 10 years with no end in sight. "There are a lot of diversions due to the road widening works, which is leading to frequent accidents with a lack of caution boards," he said.