New Expressways Connecting Chennai, Bengaluru, Salem Planned To Make Tamil Nadu Automobile Manufacturing Hub: Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME, addressing a press conference yesterday, said that the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Expressway project is being redesigned by Larsen & Toubro and it will likely have two flyovers, reports TNIE.

Gadkari said that the new design is expected to be ready in a month.

“I held discussion with the consultants. As far as the traffic snarls and pollution are concerned, we will find solutions to them,” he added.

Gadkari said that the government planned three green expressways. First, the 250-km Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway is divided into 10 packages, of which bids have been received for eight. The cost of the project is about Rs 15,000 crore.

“The travel time between Chennai and Bengaluru would be reduced to two-and-half hours with all the safety features once the expressway is ready,” he said.

The second one is the 277-km Chennai-Salem Expressway which will be constructed at a cost of Rs 7,500 crore. “NHAI is in the process of seeking environmental clearance and after that land acquisition will be initiated,” said Gadkari.

The third expressway is a newly declared National Highway Chittoor-Thatcher Road named NH 716B (160km). “It will facilitate access to the city and decongest Chennai roads. This will also pass through industrially developed areas and will cost Rs 4,000 crore,” the minister said.

As many as 23 projects for 1,100 km at the cost of Rs 23,000 crore are under progress, told Gadkari.

“We want to make India the number one automobile manufacturing hub in the world. This is where the role of Tamil Nadu is very important. I suggest the State government to establish scrapping clusters, preferably near to the port, in future, so that it can create more employment potential,” he said.

Underscoring the importance of the FASTag system, he said, “We are going to incorporate GPS-based technology. In Tamil Nadu, installation of this technology is being done on an experimental basis in certain places.”