On May 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the 20.6 km double-decker elevated highway between Chennai Port and Maduravoyal to be constructed at Rs 5,855 crore. This is the second time a PM will be laying a foundation stone for the revived project as a double-decker after a decade. On Monday, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was inked between the Tamil Nadu government, Chennai Port Trust, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and the Indian Navy for the construction work of the elevated expressway in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin at the Secretariat. The tenders for the project, which comes under the ‘Gati Shakti’ initiative, are expected to be floated in July. Only local vehicles may travel on the first deck from Chennai Port to Koyambedu on the double-decker elevated highway. On the second deck, only heavy vehicles will be permitted to travel from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal on either side. The elevated project will have climbing and descending ramps at 13 places. The elevated corridor project will have a capacity to manage 40,000 passenger car units a day. When transformed into trailers, this will be 6,500 units a day. The project is sought at the quick and continuous dispersal of freight into and out of the Chennai Port to other regions of the country. The project was first prepared during then CM M Karunanidhi’s tenure as an elevated corridor between Maduravoyal and the Port to be constructed at Rs 1,800 with then PM Manmohan Singh laying the foundation stone for the project in January 2009. At the time, it was the longest elevated corridor project in the country spanning a length of 19 km. The project was stopped in 2012 due to a row between the State Water Resources Department (WRD) and NHAI during the AIADMK regime of then CM J Jayalalitha. Image Source Also read: Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated expressway to be executed soon