Part of NH4 in Chennai has been relayed by NHAI now
Posted on: 29/Jan/2019 10:00:06 AM
Few days back Tamil Nadu sand lorry owners federation grabbed many eyeballs when it attempted to repair the stretch of National Highway or NH-4 from Vanagaram to Poonamallee as a sign of protest. The latest news is NHAI or National Highways Authority of India had re-laid the road at Vanagaram, Velappanchavadi and Parivakkam on the 1km stretch as immediate relief.
A senior official belonging to NHAI explained about how tanker lorry’s ply along the route and the water that gets spilled out from these causes the stretch to wear out. To ensure a safe drive for the motorists, NHAI has called for a tender to lay concrete road on either side of the junctions. The official hinted about the work that would start in another two months and said amount of Rs 10 crores would be spent on this work. The flow of traffic on the re-laid stretch has become smoother now.
As per Mr. Yuvaraj, president of TN sand lorry owners’ federation, during the peak hours it takes 20 minutes to cover a distance of 1km. He was happy that the officials have taken steps for the safety of the road users. He pointed out that it was not enough and wanted NHAI to show the same intensity in the six laning 93 km Walajapet-Poonamalee stretch. It is well known that this stretch has been delayed for last 6 years. The sources belonging to NHAI revealed that the project was awarded 5 years back to Essel Walajapet Poonamallee Toll Road Private Ltd and the concession agreement with the private firm has been terminated more than 2 years back. The reason was because of the slow progress of work. An official then spoke about how just 12.5 % of work was completed until July 2016 and how his team took over from then onwards.
It is worthy to mention that the project would be implemented in 2 phases under EPC mode or engineering, procurement and construction mode. In the first phase, Sriperumbudur- Karapettai stretch would be taken up at Rs 649.25 crores and in the second phase Karapettai-Walajapet stretch would be taken up at Rs 751 crores.
