Sriperumbudur-Walajapet NH work soon

According to Krishnagiri-based NHAI project director DV Narayan, “Work on six -laning the roughly 60 km between Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district and Walajapet in Vellore district on the Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway will start before this financial year. It is expected to come up at an estimated Rs.1300 crore.”

Interestingly, while the Walajapet – Bengaluru stretch has six lanes, the Sriperumbudur – Walajapet stretch is only four lanes, despite the fact that traffic density increases as one nears Chennai. When asked about this, Narayan said, “The original contract was for six-laning of the entire Chennai-Bengaluru stretch, but the contractor created problems by only four laning the shorter stretch. Though the contract was terminated in 2016 due to this lapse, it nevertheless caused delays.”

The 60 km stretch has been divided into two projects and new contractors have been fixed for the work, Narayan said. The work is liable to be completed in a year. However, NHAI and the contractors have their work cut out, as the existing Chennai – Kancheepuram stretch is potholed, making the going tough for vehicles, which weave to the sides, in order to avoid potholes, thereby creating a hazard for the traffic following behind. The presence of industrial estates in Sriperumbudur creates bottlenecks during peak hours, so much so that traffic slows to a crawl.

Meanwhile, NHAI has requested the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments to start land acquisition procedures, after which the detailed project report (DPR) will be drawn up, for an proposed expressway, according to Bengaluru- based NHAI General Manager Kamal Arora. NHAI has projected a peak traffic density, ranging between 60,000 to 90,000 cars per day on the proposed project.

The expressway was necessitated as the National Highway NH 4, which now runs parallel to the proposed project, is one of the stretches with the highest traffic density in the country. Chennai and Bengaluru are presently linked by two highways. The first via Kolar, Chittoor, Ranipet and is 335 km long and the other, which meanders through Ranipet and Krishnagiri, is 372 km long.