Chennai: Slow progress of land acquisition in the state is hampering the construction of the 262-km long six-lane Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway (BCE) project, says NHAI officials. The expressway is proposed along a new alignment, having six-lane carriageway with paved shoulders, to be developed as a fully access controlled facility. The expressway will pass through Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Vellore districts in Tamil Nadu, Chittoor in AP and Karnataka’s Kolar and Bengaluru Rural. The highway would begin at Hoskote, the junction of NH-4 and NH-207 and ends at Sriperumbudur.
According to a senior NHAI official, though the major portion of the expressway passes through TN, the process for acquiring land of 98 km stretch in the state is yet to commence. At the same time, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have reached advanced stages of completing the acquisition process, the official added. “This being a green field project, we cannot award contract for the work without completing the land acquisition. Out of the total required land of 2,295 hectares, we have to acquire nearly 1,000 hectares in TN alone,” said a NHAI official. However, the delay by the Tamil Nadu government in sanctioning of special revenue staff for land acquisition units is holding up the work.
The state government has issued order to establish LA units in Kancheepuram but no staffs were deputed for it. For Vellore district, the state government is yet to issue an order. The new expressway would be laid at a cost of Rs 7,800 crore including Rs 1,100 crore for land acquisition.
The signal and junction free expressway will have a design speed of 120 km and it is expected to reduce travel time between the two cities to only two and half hours. The existing NH-4 which connects the two cities covers a distance of 335 km and was built on a design speed of 100 km. It takes nearly five hours of travelling time.
