Highways dept expedites land acquisition for Rs 12,000 cr Chennai Peripheral Ring Road

CHENNAI: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Highways Department has hastened work on the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road, connecting Ennore Port to Mahabalipuram, by commencing land acquisition for the project.

The department has issued land acquisition notification for acquiring 59,608 square metres of land at Polivakkam village in Tiruvallur as part of section III of the project connecting 30.6 km Tiruvallur bypass with Sriperumbudur on Chennai-Bengaluru highway.

Official sources said the land acquisition was expedited to ensure commencement of the physical works this fiscal. The 133.381 km long peripheral road that would run through Singaperumalkoil, Sriperumbudur, Tiruvallur, Tamaraipakkam, Periyapalayam, Puduvoyal and Kattupalli would be laid at a cost of Rs 12,301 crore.

It will be executed in five sections. The first section will be a 25.50 km stretch from Ennore Port to Thatchur on NH-5 while the second section of 26.25 km will be from Thatchur on NH-5 to the start of Tiruvallur Bypass. The third section of 29.55 km will be from

Tiruvallur Bypass to Sriperumbudur on NH-4. (Tiruvallur Bypass is planned to be a part of phase-III of CPR). The section four of 24.85 km will be from Sriperumbudur on NH-4 to Singaperumalkoil on NH45

while the fifth section of 27.50 km will be from Singaperumalkoil to Mahabalipuram on East Coast Road (ECR).

Sources said work was in progress to acquire 245 hectares at a cost of Rs 951 crore in the section I connecting Ennore Port to Thatchur, which has been entrusted to Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation. The work on the section I is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Rs 2,473 crore.

The rest of the project would be executed by Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure and Development Corporation (TNRIDC), with the work on the section four, which involved widening, was already completed.

“In the sections two, three and five of the peripheral road project, administrative sanction has been accorded for the acquisition of 558 hectares at a cost of Rs 2,603 crore. Now the process of land acquisition has been taken up by the TNRIDC,” sources said, adding that the construction work is scheduled to begin in 2020-21.