An ambitious programme for upgradation of National Highways worth Rs.195 crores has been approved by the Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways,Thiru T. R. Baalu. The five projects for upgradation of National Highways within the Metropolitan city of Chennai are given as under:

1. Widening of 4.5 km. road stretch from Ambedkar Statue to Madurvoil at a cost of Rs 25 crores.
2. Improvement of Koyambedu junction, including a Grade Separated Junction, costing Rs 26 crores.
3. Construction of a Grade Separated Junction at Kathipada, costing Rs 23 crores.
4. Construction of a Flyover in front of Airport on NH-45, including pedestrian underpasses at a cost of Rs 36 crores.
5. Construction of a Rail over bridge (ROB) and an Elevated Rotary at Padi Junction on NH-205, costing Rs 85 crores.

The Government has undertaken an ambitious programme for upgradation of National Highways falling along the alignment of Golden Quadrilateral connecting the four Metropolitan cities viz., Delhi – Kolkata – Chennai – Mumbai and North-South and East-West corridor connecting Srinagar – Kanniakumari and Silchar and Porbandar respectively. This programme known as National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) is under implementation and upon completion is expected to provide impetus to over-all economic growth of the country.

In the NHDP, Chennai is one Metropolitan city where two arms of Golden Quadrilateral viz., Chennai – Kolkata and Chennai – Mumbai are originating / terminating. Besides the arms of Golden Quadrilateral there is another important corridor viz., Chennai – Thindivanam – Trichy – Madurai, which is also being upgraded as part of NHDP.

The confluence of three important corridors of NHDP at Chennai make this Metropolitan unique in the manner of traffic it is going to handle. The smooth and fast movement of traffic of NHDP is likely to get cogged within the Metropolitan and resultant slow dispersal of traffic may negate some of the advantages for development of NHDP. It could, therefore, be prudent that the problem of congestion within Metropolitan city of Chennai for easy and smooth dispersal of traffic to and from the Metropolitan of Chennai is addressed suitably.

These projects will be handed over to National Highways Authority of India for implementation. The National Highways Authority of India have already initiated the process of tendering etc. The construction work is likely to commence in January 2005.

In addition to the projects approved today, NHAI has already taken up the project of construction of Chennai bypass Phase-II in a length of 13.2 km. together with the widening of the existing 2-lane Chennai bypass Phase-I having a length of 19.1 km. The bids for this Rs 445 crores project have already been called by NHAI and are being received on 23^rd December, 2004. The project includes a full cloverleaf grade separated junction at Maduroyal where Phase-I and Phase-II bypasses join and intersect the existing NH-4. The cost of this grade separator is Rs.25 crores. The Chennai bypass Phase-II will join NH-5 at Madhavaram where a trumpet interchange has been proposed at a cost of Rs. 14 crores.

In addition, at the Tambaram end of the bypass (Phase-I) grade separation is proposed for the traffic turning from Tambaram side on to the bypass. This grade separation is being provided by box pushing technique. This component of the project will cost Rs. 5 crores. The total cost of widening of the Phase-I is Rs. 74 crores and construction of Phase-II including all grade separated intersections is Rs. 276 crores.

The total cost including land acquisition, utilities, supervision and project contingencies works out to Rs.445 crores. With these two projects the city of Chennai will have an investment of nearly Rs. 640 crores in the National Highway infrastructure. This is sure to change the face of city of Chennai in the next two years.