CHENNAI: Chennai Port Trust authorities had indicated in January plans to revive the much-delayed Maduravoyal-Chennai Port elevated corridor project in April with the finalisation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) but there appears to be no new development on the project.
Port authorities said it would at least take another month to finalise the DPR. Some cited differences between the Centre and state on land acquisition is the reason.
“In addition to the proposed 18 km, Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan expressed keenness to extend the project by an additional 10km taking the reach from Maduravoyal to the city’s periphery, in 2017. This is delaying the DPR,” an official said.
In regard to this, the Tamil Nadu state sand lorry owner's federation submitted a petition to governor, Banwarilal Purohit and requested the government to “at least” maintain the giant pillars raised on the Poonamallee high road on which over thousand crore has been invested.
“The work would at least take one to two years to begin and already the pillars near Cooum have started rusting. Due to this, either the flyover will become weak or the government should again spend a huge lump of sum on raising pillars,” said association president, S. Yuvaraj.The project was stalled right after J. Jayalalithaa assumed charge in 2011 and environmental reasons were cited.
The project still has numerous glitches — nearly 500 commercial establishments and more than 7,000 slums must be evicted and also over 1.40 hectares of land must be acquired.
