Six-laning work of Sriperumbudur-Walajahpet slow-paced: Gadkari

CHENNAI: The work on widening the Sriperumbudur-Walajahpet stretch of the Chennai Bengaluru highway into a six-lane has been progressing at a slow pace, said Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

Replying to a question raised by Rajya Sabha MP KRN Rajeshkumar, Gadkari said that the six-lanning works of Maduravoyal to Walajahpet section of the NH-48 was taken up under three packages. The Maduravoyal to Sriperumbudur works were progressing as per the schedule while the works on Sriperumbudur-Karaipettai and Karaipettai-Walajahpet are facing set back.

The minister said that as of date, 55 per cent of works were completed on the widening of the Maduravoyal-Sriperumbudur section which was scheduled to be completed on February 13, 2023. The present progress of Sriperumbudur-Karaipettai work is 35.62 per cent and is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2024. About 54 per cent of the work has been completed on the Karaipettai-Walajahpet stretch and its expected completion date is December 2023.

Sources in the National Highways said that the slow progress of the work was mainly due to the shortage of earth for the construction of approaches for the vehicular underpass. “The work on the Maduravoyal-Sriperumbudur stretch widening is taken up by the National Highway wing of the State Highway Department. It has only four vehicular underpasses. While the Sriperumbudur-Karaipettai and Karaipettai-Walajahpet stretches have 33 vehicular underpasses and flyovers and it requires a large volume of borrow earth, ” the sources added.

NH sources said that the NHAI headquarters even wrote to the State government seeking help to borrow earth for this project. “Since the waterbodies are full of water, we were not able to excavate sand. It is leading to project delay, ” sources said.