Land acquisition for Chennai Port-Maduravoyal project gathers pace

CHENNAI: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a 3A notification to acquire land for the construction of the entry and exit ramps for the double-decker four-lane elevated corridor from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal.

According to the land acquisition notification issued by the MoRTH, the National Highway Authority of India would acquire 2,882.152 square meters of private and government land at Arumbakkam and Koyambedu for the construction of entry and exit ramps for the elevated corridor project.

NHAI sources said that the elevated corridor requires minimal land acquisition as the project alignment starts within Chennai port premises and passes along the banks of Cooum river from Chintadripet to Koyambedu and then passes through the road median of the NH-4 upto Maduravoyal.

The sources said that even the minimum land required for the project would mostly comprise government land. "Already award has been passed for acquiring 1.47 hectares of land at a cost of Rs 72 crore," the sources said, adding that the present notification was mainly for the construction of the entry and exit ramps at Koyambedu and Arumbakkam where they plan to acquire nearly 1.35 hectares of land, including government land.

The elevated corridor project was revived after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in May last year. After being shelved by the previous AIADMK government citing obstruction to water flow on the Cooum river in 2012, the project was revived into a four-lane double-decker elevated corridor with separate for city traffic and port-bound vehicles.

The elevated corridors run to a total distance of 20.565 km including 12.5 km of double-decker corridor with 13 entry and exit ramps. The project is executed by the NHAI at an estimated cost of Rs 5,721 crore.