Tamil Nadu launches scheme to advance road infrastructure
Chennai: The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has instituted and instigated a five-year performance-based maintenance contract scheme for projects pertaining to road development and maintenance.
Maintenance of existing highways and roads along with the laying of new roads would be awarded under a single contract for five years, under this scheme.
Under the contract, repair, renovation and upgrade works would be undertaken on a rotational basis for five years. The primary objective of this scheme is to maintain and sustain the quality of good roads, ease traffic congestion within the cities, and provide a major boost to the development of road infrastructure.
The performance-based maintenance contract scheme would commence on a pilot basis on 185.98 kilometers of main roads and 191 kilometers of highway roads within the Coimbatore district in the first phase, at an approximate cost of INR1.1bn ($20.5m) and INR1.2bn ($22m) respectively.
At the launch of the performance-based maintenance contract scheme, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu – J Jayalalithaa announced an additional INR 2.4bn ($44.7m) towards the renovation of roads and highways and the development of various new road projects across the state.
At the same time, the installation of India’s first solar street lighting project in the state under the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency’s centralized street light project scheme has been completed a company which provides power solutions. Centralized solar photo voltaic power facilities with the potential of generating a capacity of 500W each, has been installed by Su-Kam. Each photo voltaic plant can power a group of ten existing street lights.
Spread across seven districts within the western region of the state, 3,220 street lights are expected to be powered through 322 500W units produced by the centralized street light project for Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency‘s (TEDA). Su-Kam is responsible for maintenance and commissioning of the street lights for the next five years.
Recently the Phase II of the Chennai Outer Ring Road project which would be costing an estimated Rs 985.44 crore was won by a consortium of Ashoka Buildcon and GVR Infra Projects. With the objective of de-congesting the roads of Chennai city, the government of Tamil Nadu had divvied Rs 1,075 crore for the project. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is also developing the major transport corridor of the Outer Ring Road along the periphery of Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA). The corridor stretches for 62.3 kilometer in length and connects NH 4 (GWT Road) at Nazarathpet, NH 45 (GST Road) at Vandalur, NH 5 (GNT Road) at Nallur, NH 205 (CTH Road) at Nemilicherry (Thiruninravur) and TPP road at Minjur. The key objective of the project is to allow heavy vehicles to journey outside of the city, minimizing traffic congestion within the central city areas.
With the imminent and gradual advent of these new roads, the accessibility of various centers both urban as well as rural would become more convenient; resulting in the eventual increment in the real estate prices as well as easing congestion from the main and central parts of the major cities located within the state.
