Ring road for Trichy

TIRUCHI: Construction of bypass and ring roads, grade separators and flyovers are being planned in various parts of the State under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-VII, according to Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu.

Ring roads around Tirunelveli, Tiruchi, Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and an elevated link road to the Chennai port are on the anvil, Mr. Baalu said. He was declaring open a bypass road at Viralimalai, built as part of the four-lane project on the Tiruchi-Madurai section of National Highway 45B here on Sunday.

The United Progressive Alliance government was committed to bringing about all-round development of the road network in the country. Various phases of the NHDP had been taken up to improve the road network. The revised programmes entailed an unprecedented investment of about Rs.2,35,690 crore.

About 5,690 km of highways had been developed under the Golden Quadrilateral project. Only 115 km was pending. Under the North-South and East-West corridors, works had been completed on 2,696 km out of the total 7,142 km. Work was under way on another 3,625 km.

Expressways and ring roads taken up under NHDP Phase-VI and VII would be completed by 2015. As a policy decision, all future projects under the NHDP would be executed primarily in the public-private partnership mode.

Focussed attention

Tamil Nadu had received focussed attention in the development of national highways, Mr. Baalu said.

Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest S. Regupathy said roads in Pudukottai district had been strengthened with the Central assistance of over Rs.100 crore since 2006-07.

State Highways Minister M.P. Saminathan said the State government had spent Rs.4,690 crore on strengthening and renovating about 31,741 km of road stretches since it came to power. The 742-km long Vellore-Tuticorin road, traversing 11 districts, was being developed at a cost of Rs.2,160 crore with the World Bank aid.

Transport Minister K.N. Nehru said strengthening of the road network in the State would lead to better transport connectivity.

Ashok Wasson, Member (Technical), National Highways Authority of India, said the 124.84-km long Tiruchi-Melur-Madurai NH 45B was being four-laned at a cost of Rs.420 crore. Six by-pass roads were being laid across the highway.

MLAs Udayam Shanmugham and K.N. Sekaran; Periyannan Arasu, Member, Non-Conventional Energy Advisory Council; N.S. Jain, Chief Engineer, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways; A.K. Yadav, Superintending Engineer; L.P. Padi, General Manager, NHAI; and others participated.