News:

80 city roads to be upgraded:

CHENNAI: The Government is all set to launch work to upgrade 80 roads and create 10 bridges in Chennai Metropolitan Area.

An order issued on Monday said the works costing Rs. 525 crores would cover the roads falling under the jurisdiction of the State Highways Department.

This includes improvements to roads stretching 395 km for Rs. 272 crore. As regards the bridges, the outlay is Rs. 207 crore. For land acquisition, the allocation is Rs. 46 crore.

In a couple of days, the department will issue the tender notice for the road works. The contracts will be awarded by the end of December, a senior government official says.

About 50 roads will be upgraded from single lane to two lanes; two roads from intermediate lanes to two lanes; one road from two lanes to three lanes, five roads from two lanes to four lanes and one road from two lanes to six lanes. About 20 roads will also be strengthened and seven roads to be relaid.

Madipakkam-Velachery road, Basin Bridge road, Madhavaram-Red Hills road, Vandalur-Kelambakkam road, Lattice Bridge road, Vandalur-Walajahbad road, Tiruvallur-Karasangal road, and Ramapuram-Pakkam road are among the roads to be improved.

Consultants for bridges

As for the proposed bridges, the services of consultants will be hired by the department for designing them. The selection of the consultants is expected to be completed in a month. Three months will be given to them to carry out the designing work. By the end of February or early March, bids may be floated, the official points out.

Five bridges will come up at five junctions in the CMA. They will be built at the junctions of Anna Nagar Second Avenue, Thirumangalam-Mogappair road and Inner Ring Road; Moolakadai on Grand Northern Trunk road; Sardar Patel Road-Anna Salai near Chellammal College; Inner Ring Road-NSK Road at Vadapalani and Kodambakkam-Sriperumpudur road-Mount Poonamalle road at Porur. The five bridges alone will cost Rs. 122 crore.

To address the long-standing demand of people in north Chennai, a flyover at Vyasarpadi will be built at a cost of Rs. 50 crore as the existing underpass always gets flooded during rainy days.

Four bridges will be built across rivers and water bodies. A bridge across the Ennore creek will be built at a cost of Rs. 20 crore. The existing two bridges - Thiru.Vi.Ka. bridge across Adyar and another bridge across Buckingham Canal near Madhya Kailash - will be widened. One more bridge will be built across Cooum at Nerkundram.

The Chief Minister recently cleared a proposal for extending the southern arm of inner ring road from Velachery to Grand Southern Trunk road.

The proposed will terminate near the Officers' Training Academy at St. Thomas Mount. A government order is to be issued shortly.

The five-km-long road will be formed along the proposed alignment of Mass Rapid Transit System. Of the total Rs. 94 crore, the land acquisition process alone will cost Rs. 60 crore. Bids for the civil works, estimated to cost Rs. 34 crore, will be floated by the end of this month. The acquisition process remains to be completed for a portion of the road and this will be expedited, the official adds.