6 years on, Rs 1,655 crore city expressway shelved

NHAI officials were able to begin the construction works in 2009 from Maduravoyal but had to abandon the project midway as they were not getting clearance from the state government. Sources said that residents from Maduravoyal and other areas where land had been acquired, had began to protest forcing them to stall their work. D Surendranath, Project Director, NHAI, Chennai Region, told DTNext, “We waited for the state government to respond and issue clearance certificate since 2011, but nothing happened. On the other hand, the contracting agency pressed upon us that they should proceed with the work without delay if they were to finish the project within the estimated budget.  Finally, we decided to terminate the big project as there was no other way out.” 

Asked if there would be any possibility to continue work at a later time, Surendranath said chances were remote. “Only if the state and Centre reach a mutual consent, we can float tender again.” Another NHAI official, on condition of anonymity, said that the contracting agency continued to keep pressing them to permit them to continue work despite state government’s stand. “In this project, the contracting agency itself would have borne the cost of works, after which the estimated amount would have been reimbursed by NHAI. 

Further, the agency had completed only 25-30 per cent of construction works and had to wait over five years for clearance. Under these circumstances, there was high possibility of the agency to claim 50 per cent from the estimated cost,” the engineer said and added that they were yet to receive the bill and a case in connection with this issue was in the apex court. When asked about the project, M G Devasagayam, an urban development expert and a former civil servant, said, “NHAI first notified the tender to a contracting agency, in which the distance of elevated expressway was nine kilometres, which seemed to be good and the cost was also half of the current estimates. 

However, it increased the distance to 19 km and transferred the tender to another contractual agency, thus increasing the cost.” The second blueprint of this project left much to be desired, as the expressway ran along the Cooum affecting the river’s ecology, he said and added that this was yet another instance of people’s money getting wasted in the name of executing big projects.