Tamil Nadu keen to revive Port-Maduravoyal project

CHENNAI: The Port-Maduravoyal expressway project may have a fresh lease of life as the state government, it is reliably learnt, is keen on reviving and completing it expeditiously.
Intervening in the debate on the motion of thanks to the governor's address in the assembly, highways and PWD minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “We have not asked them (NHAI) to stop the project.We only want them to stick to the agreement (on alignment).“ The work was stopped only when the contractor constructed pillars in Cooum riverbed, instead of doing it on the riverbanks, he said.
The 1,815-crore project got stuck after pillars were constructed for several kilometres and about 15% work was completed spending 500 crore. After repeated efforts over a span of four years to revive the project failed, NHAI terminated the contract in the run-up to the state assembly election in April.
Outwardly , there is no significant change in the stand being adopted by the state government, but sources in the government said some efforts had started to put the 19km long flyover project back on rails. “We have initiated talks with the Centre and NHAI. Something positive is likely to emerge soon,“ said an official.
The state public works department, which cleared the project during the DMK regime, sent a stop work notice in February 2012, months after the previous AIADMK government took over the reins. The charges were alleged deviation in alignment. The Modi government at the Centre has been insisting on the state government working out an “out-of-court settlement“ to keep the project alive.
Union shipping and highways minister Nitin Gadkari and his deputy Pon Radhakrishnan have been putting pressure on the state government to resolve the dispute and move forward with the project. NHAI, meanwhile, has taken a stand that unless there is a state support agreement, no project would be taken up in Tamil Nadu in future as change of state governments have hit projects badly in the past.
Incidentally, the Madras high court quashed the PWD's stop work notice to NHAI in 2014, giving a go-ahead signal to NHAI. But the state moved the Supreme Court. “The court told us to forward nominees for setting up an expert committee, and we have forwarded our nominees,“ Palaniswami said in the assembly.
More than 130 columns were built between Maduravoyal and Chetpet before the work was stalled. An independent expert committee of NHAI had “allayed the fears“ of the state government and asserted that the columns would not cause any flooding of adjacent areas.
NHAI sources said the agency had intimated to the SC that it could choose experts from Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, Central Water Commission, New Delhi and National Environment Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, to study the project alignment. The contract was terminated as the contractor was keen on pulling out of the project, an NHAI official said. Until 2013, the contractor had raised bills for 945 crore including compensation for keeping the machinery idle.