Centre inks Rs 2,470 crore pact with JICA for peripheral ring road

CHENNAI: In a major push to road infrastructure in the traffic-choked city, the state government is set to speed up land acquisition for the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road. Envisaged at linking Ennore and Katupalli ports in the north with East Coast Road at Mamallapuram covering 133.65km, it will comprise of four-lane divided carriageway and two-lane service road on both sides to accommodate future widening and laying of pipelines.


To begin work on phase-1, covering 25km from Ennore to Thatchur along NH5 (now named NH16), the Union government on Friday signed a ?2,470 crore loan agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The highways department has identified 250.8hectares, including 171.25 hectares of private land, required for the purpose. Acquring land for the first phase alone is estimated to cost ?1,431crore.

“The peripheral road is one of the key projects to connect Ennore and Kattupalli ports, a long-pending demand of the industrial sector. The land acquisition will be on full swing this year and tenders for construction will be floated next year for the 25km stretch. The programme is expected to be completed by 2023. The other phases will be taken up subsequently,” said a senior government official.

A district revenue officer and a deputy collector will soon be appointed and six land acquisition units will be set up to speed up the process. “Orders are expected anytime,” the official said. Phase-1 will also involve laying a 3.6km link, including a 2.85km elevated stretch to minimize land acquisition, to Outer Ring Road.


Previous alignment would have affected 166 buildings

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had requested the realignment to avoid densely populated areas as the earlier alignment would have affected 166 buildings. While the proposed project stretches from Ennore to Mamallapuram via Thatchur, Tiruvallur Bypass and Sriperumbudur, the state also proposed to further extend it from Poonjeri to Madhya Kailash via Siruseri.

Katsuo Matsumoto, chief representative of JICA India, said, “The traffic volume in Chennai has been increasing steeply with rapidly growing urbanization, resulting in continuous congestions thereby, causing a bottleneck for business activities. Section 1 of Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (24.52km in total) consists of the Northern Port Access Road (Ennore Port to Thatchur), which is the northern part of the planned Chennai Peripheral Ring Road, is the target section of this project.”

“Chennai metropolitan area accommodates lots of industrial companies and factories supported by its location, namely, critical cross-point for road as well as marine transportation for importing/exporting industrial goods and material from/to other cities in India and South-East Asia. We understand that the project will act as a “growth enabler” and help to mitigate traffic congestion and improve industrial development in Chennai,” he added.

Currently, Inner Ring Road, Chennai Bypass and Outer Ring Road connect the radial roads with the peripheries of the city, but a new circumferential road was felt as the metropolis is fast expanding in all directions.

With massive expansion plans on the anvil for Ennore Port that handles key cargo such as iron ore, planned development of road infrastructure in the region was deemed to be vital, resulting in the state drawing up the proposal for the project.

The loan agreement with JICA also facilitates installation of Intelligent Transport Systems to mitigate the traffic congestion and to promote regional economic development.