In a major fillip to infrastructure development in the State, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday announced road projects, bridges and sub-ways at a cost of Rs 2,325 crore. The prime beneficiaries will be Chennai and its neighbourhood.
The Chief Minister told the Assembly that her government had conceived plans to the tune of Rs 1,130 crore to prevent accidents, and to improve roads and road designs, widen narrow bridges, and create medians, road signs and accident-prevention mechanisms near open wells. In the current year, works would be implemented at a cost of Rs 400 crore.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said that 250-km national highways in the newly extended areas of Chennai would be expanded with drainage facilities and pedestrian pathways. The total investment for the work was Rs 1,033 crore and in the first phase, works to the tune of Rs 250 crore would be taken up. She said two multilane overbridges – one each at Medavakkam and Keelkattalai – would be built at a cost of Rs. 18.50 crore. A subway would be constructed on the South Inner Ring Road at Rs 50 crore to be funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Three elevated bridges would come up at Paruthipattu, Ramavaram and Nolambur at a cost of Rs. 58 crore and an escalator at a cost of Rs 12 crore near the Tambaram railway station.
The Chief Minister said works were already being carried out to convert the road between Oragadam and Sriperumbudur into six lanes under the Road Infrastructure Development Scheme. In the next phase, the road between Singaperumalkoil and Orgadam would be widened into a six-lane highway.