The Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway Corridor that is being presently revived is likely to have ramps at Spurtank Road and Swami Sivananda Salai.
This will allow vehicles other than those proceeding to and from the port to use it.
Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said they were studying the feasibility of the proposal to construct up and down ramps at the locations.
The State Highways Department insisted during a meeting with the NHAI that the ramps should be constructed as planned earlier, according to sources.
“The project had been put on hold since the alignment was not proper. A change in the pillars was made and somewhere in this process, the two ramps seemed to have dropped,” a source in the department said.
Original plan
A former official of the Highways Department said the corridor’s original plan included three ramps — at Koyambedu, Spurtank Road and at Swami Sivananda Salai — apart from the up and down ramps at the port and at Maduravoyal on Poonamallee High Road.
“In the affidavit submitted by the NHAI in the court, they said the corridor would be used to evacuate ambulances and other vehicles. If these ramps are not provided, it would only be a waste of public money. The State government has spent so much on rehabilitation of families living along the Cooum river, along which most of the 19.2-km-long alignment of the corridor runs. The government has borne 50% of the cost of land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation,” he pointed out.
The Madras High Court in its February 2014 order has also pointed out that “the traffic congestion from Maduravoyal to Chennai Port, which runs through thickly populated middle portion of the city, will be reduced and the school and college going students and travelling public will be benefited by saving travelling time.”