Madras HC stays contract to widen ECR into six-lane elevated road

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court barred the State government from awarding the contract for constructing a six-lane elevated road along the East Coast Road (ECR), following a legal challenge by a firm after its technical bid was rejected.

The project, proposed by the Tamil Nadu State Highways Authority (TANSHA), involves widening the busy ECR stretch from Tiruvanmiyur to Uthandi into a six-lane corridor.

TANSHA had issued a tender inviting bids for the project on August 25 last year. During the tender process, the technical bid submitted by Dilip Buildcon Limited, a Bhopal-based construction firm, was rejected by the authorities.

Aggrieved by this, the company challenged the decision but its petition was dismissed by a single judge of the High Court, observing that the company had approached the court even before the tender process was completed and the final contract was awarded.

Following this, Dilip Buildcon filed an appeal against the single judge’s order. The appeal came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice MM Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan.

After hearing the submissions, the bench directed that the tender contract works should not be awarded to the selected company until further orders, and adjourned the matter to February 12 for further hearing.

As per the plan, the 13.3-km elevated corridor will begin at West Avenue Road near the LB Road junction and end at Uthandi. The project aims to reduce signal delays and traffic conflicts caused by the large number of cross streets feeding into the ECR. The existing 14-km stretch has 17 traffic signals, with around 190 crossroads on the left and 157 on the right.

Traffic counts taken in May and June 2024 recorded an average daily flow of 68,923 vehicles at Injambakkam, equivalent to 58,226 passenger car units (PCU). Forecasts up to 2054 project a maximum flow of 10,424 PCU per hour. The report notes that the present four-lane at-grade section cannot handle this demand.

The project was expected to progress smoothly, as land acquisition will be limited to ramp locations, as the main right-of-way has already been secured.