Maduravoyal elevated road to suffer more delay

The work on the elevated project continues to remain stalled even after preparation of a revised Detailed Project Report (DPR). A senior official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the work remains stalled as a crucial portion of land belonging to the Navy from where the elevated road as part of the project would take off is yet to be acquired.

The official said that the Indian Navy and Chennai Port Trust have mutually agreed on the alignment, especially at the landing point in the port. The Shipping Ministry has given in-principle approval to the proposal for alienation of Chennai Port Trust land to naval authorities in lieu of taking over the Navy quarters land for the project. “The Defence Ministry is yet to give concurrence for the proposal. Only after taking possession of the crucial piece of land will we be able to move forward on the project,” an NHAI official said.

Apart from the Navy land, the NHAI official said a portion of the encroachments along the Cooum river is yet to be removed. “As per the DPR, the project-affected families should be rehabilitated and resettled,” the official said, adding that after taking possession of the land belonging to the Navy and the encroached portion along the Cooum, the bids could be invited for the project under the Build- Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.

Initially, the project cost of the 19.3 km long elevated road was estimated at Rs 1815 crore in 2010. However, the work was stalled following the Water Resources Department raising objection to the alignment along Cooum river in 2012.

The elevated project was revived in December 2016 and a revised DPR was prepared in October 2018. In the revised DPR, the project cost was revised upward to Rs 2700 crore and the elevated project’s total length has gone up to 20.3 km. The project will also have six lanes after its cross section has been upgraded from 20m to 29m as per the new Indian Road Congress (IRC) manual guidelines.