Mega Streets Project: GCC to revamp 25 km stretch of road in Chennai under ‘quick wins’; details here

Last year, after making the announcement of the 110 km-long Mega Streets Project in Chennai, recently the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) announced that 25 km roads will be revamped across the city for ‘quick wins’. In addition to this, the designs and details for nearly 100 km of roads are ready as well. According to an IE report, a few portions of the proposed 110 km long Mega Streets Project will be revamped under ‘quick wins’ initially. For the same, GCC has already identified consultants after issuing tenders. G Prakash, IAS, the Commissioner of the GCC was quoted in the report saying that due to paucity of funds, the corporation currently cannot focus on all 110-km of roads under the project. However, certain portions of the roads have been chalked out for revamp.

According to Prakash, this will also make sure that there is no assumption that under the road project, only T Nagar (Pedestrian Plaza) is getting revamped. The report said, the roads which will be revamped are a sub-part of the localities that have been identified under Phase I of the Mega Streets Project (Velachery, Tondiarpet, Nungambakkam, Anna Nagar, Adyar and Mylapore).

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Mega Streets Project, which was earlier supposed to start on the month of November 2020, had been put on hold. To ensure a seamless commute as well as enhance the utility of the city’s arterial and major roads, GCC launched the project on 11 February 2020. The project, which is an extension of the Smart City Mission, proposes to redevelop roads spreading across 426 sq km of Chennai, of which 600 km streets are maintained by the GCC and 286 km roads that are maintained by other departments within the GCC limits.

The Mega Streets project’s Phase-1, will focus on 110 km of arterial roads in the localities of Anna Nagar, Nungambakkam, Velachery, Tondiarpet, Mylapore and Adyar. The major roads which will be revamped under the Phase-1 in these areas are Sardar Patel Road, Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai (R K Salai), Gandhi Mandapam Road, Cathedral Road, Lattice Bridge Road (LB Road), Royapettah High Road, Kutchery Road, Greenways Road, Cathedral Road, Thiruvottiyur High Road, Anna Nagar – 2nd, 3rd Avenues; Race Course Road, New Avadi Road and Velachery Main Road.

According to GCC, the following roads of the project’s Phase I will be redeveloped under quick wins:

• 4.784 km long roads in Anna Nagar: 3rd Avenue Road, Pulla Avenue and Kilpauk Garden Road
• 5 km long roads in Tondiarpet – George Town – Thiruvottiyur: SN Chetty Road/Ennore High Road as well as Thiruvottiyur High Road
• 3.470 km long roads in Nungambakkam: Cathedral Road and Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai
• 3.340 km long roads in Mylapore: Kamaraj Salai, C P Ramasamy Salai and Eldams Road
• 5.658 km long roads in Velachery: Race Course Road and Velachery Main Road
• 4.675 km long roads in Adyar: Dr. Ramachandra Aditanar Road, East Canal Bank Road, West Canal Bank Road, Gandhi Nagar – 1st, Cross Street, 2nd Cross Street and 3rd Cross Street as well as Taluka Office Road

A total of 13.08 km of roads are proposed under the Mega Streets Project to be revamped in Anna Nagar, 30.48 km in Mylapore, 25.81 km in Tondiarpet – George Town – Thiruvottiyur, 9.29 km in Velachery, 20.28 km in Adyar and 12.24 km in Nungambakkam. According to Prakash, after quick wins, the GCC will also consider working on the rest of roads of the proposed 110-km roads revamp project. The corporation is still waiting for funds from the government. While the estimates budget for quick wins amount to Rs 500 or 600 crore. Prakash is hopeful of receiving a directive from the state government this week, regarding the funding for quick wins.