The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said it has signed a loan agreement amounting to about Rs 28.09 billion for construction of the second phase of the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road Project. The Chennai Peripheral Ring Road is one of the priority projects in the ‘Comprehensive Integrated Master Plan for the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (2015)’ based on an agreement between the Government of Japan and Government of India. The project’s objective is to meet the rapidly increasing traffic demand in Chennai, ease congestion and reduce the transportation time by about 40 minutes from Chennai and Ennore ports.