Centre signs up with JICA for Chennai Ring Road

In a major push to improve the road infrastructure in Tamil Nadu’s congested capital, the state government is ready to ramp up land acquisition for the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (CPR). Work on the first phase of the project is likely to start from the first or second quarter of next year, for which a loan agreement of Rs 2,470 crore was signed between India and the international funding agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The CPR is aimed at improving connectivity for the movement of containers from the southern industrial districts to Kattupulli and Ennore in the north. The peripheral road aims to address the increasing demand for road traffic in the Chennai Metropolitan Area. In collaboration with the other ring roads such as Inner Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, and Chennai Bypass, the Chennai Peripheral Road is expected to improve connectivity in and around Chennai by providing alternative traffic routes and improving the existing road network. Industrial clusters located in the suburban areas of the Chennai Metropolitan Area will have direct access to Ennore port and Kattupalli port via the peripheral road. The new CPR is also expected to aid in accelerating industrial and economic growth in the areas. As per sources, the land acquisition for this project is in its final stages. The project is likely to be completed by 2024. The 25 km phase-1 extending from Northern Port Access Road to Egmore shall be completed with assistance from JICA, as per official sources. JICA will scrutinise and finalise the Detailed Project Report for that particular section. Phase-II is 26 km long and extends from Thatchur on National Highway 16 to the start of Thiruvallur Bypass. The 30 km Phase-III starts from Thiruvallur Bypass and extends up to Sriperumbudur on National Highway 48. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) shall assist in the development of Phase-II and Phase-III of the project. Under Phase-II of the project, which starts from the Velliyur village and ends at Ikkadu Kandigai village, a new alignment is being proposed to avoid impacting the local residents. According to the original alignment plan, which was formulated by the state’s highways department, Vengal, Puduvoyal, Periyapalayam, and Vadamadurai will be significantly impacted. Alternatively, a new alignment plan was formulated to avoid impacting the aforementioned settlement areas. The new alignment is a greenfield alignment and is designed to traverse behind Velliyur and Tamaripakkam settlement areas. The Vengal bypass road and Vadamadurai bypass road mentioned in the original alignment plan are no longer required. The original alignment for Phase-III has undergone changes too in order to minimise social impacts and damages to existing structures. The newly proposed alignment plan for Phase-III is eco-friendly as it saves nearly 8500 avenue trees and is also more economical as compared to the original alignment plan.