Kanchi-Vandavasi Road Widening will Smoothen Goods Flow to Ennore Port

The road will also be connected to the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (CPRR) to Manampathi to ensure smooth freight movement from the industrial corridor towards the Chennai port. Adjacent projects like the Cheyyar-Vandavasi-Polur route expansion would add major bypass tracks around Vandavasi.

The industrial growth of the Cheyyar and Vembakkam SIPCOT is severely affected due to the traffic congestion in the Kanchipuram-Vandavasi Road delaying the delivery of raw materials for industries besides taking finished goods by road. Besides many accidents were reported on the road and the workers of the industries too find it difficult to reach their companies in time affecting the production.

There were requests from industrialists, workers and the local people for widening of the road into four lanes to ensure smooth flow of traffic and prevent accidents. The widening of the road is being carried out in four phases. The first phase widening is being carried out from Mangal to Manampathi junctions for 9 kms at a cost of Rs. 78 crore. The construction in the phase includes widening the existing two-lane stretch, the widening of the culverts or rebuilding them based on the needs and the construction of storm water drains in the residential areas to avoid flooding of the road during the rainy season.

The second phase involves a 72-kilometre stretch from Manampathi near Cheyyar SIPCOT to Tiruvannamalai and the government has started land acquisition and design updates for it. Initially, the plan was to extend the road till Vandavasi but later the government wanted to integrate the project into a broader economic network. Linking the Cheyyar road with Oragadam will integrate the industrial zones around Chennai with the Cheyyar SIPCOT creating a large industrial zone in the northern side of Chennai.

The government has issued orders to acquire about 307 acres of land in 34 villages including 14 villages in Vandavasi, 7 in Cheyyar, 8 in Keezh Pennathur and 5 in Tiruvannamalai. The primary construction tenders are to be floated after the local revenue departments value the lands to be acquired. The second expansion will have centre medians, bus lay-by zones and drainage infrastructure. The widening of the road will also remove the bottle-necks closer to Kanchipuram and help the devotees and tourists to reach Kanchipuram from the Vandavasi side.

A new high-level flyover is planned near the existing Sevilimedu bridge on the Kanchipuram-Vandavasi Road to ease the bottleneck at the start of the corridor and it is expected to be completed in 2028. Once all the phases of the oad widening is completed, it would serve as a high-speed feeder road ensuring smoother logistics between industrial centres besides providing a faster, reliable transit corridor from Tiruvannamalai to Chennai port, helping industrial growth and economic development.