Following the announcement of the 110 km-long Mega Streets Project in Chennai last year, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Wednesday announced that 25 km of roads across the city will be revamped for ‘quick wins’. Additionally, the designs and details for about 100 km of roads are ready as well.
Under ‘quick wins’, a few portions of the proposed 110 km long project will be revamped initially. The GCC has already identified consultants for the same after issuing tenders.
“We cannot focus on all 110-km of roads right now under the project owing to paucity of funds. Under quick wins, we have chalked out certain portions of the roads to be revamped. Quick wins will focus on roads across Chennai, thus giving a city-wide representation. This will also ensure that there is no assumption that only T Nagar (Pedestrian Plaza) is getting revamped under the project”, G Prakash, IAS, the Commissioner of the GCC told indianexpress.com.
These roads are a sub-part of the localities which have been identified under Phase I (Anna Nagar, Tondiarpet, Velachery, Nungambakkam, Adyar and Mylapore) of the Mega Streets Project.
The Mega Streets Project, which was earlier supposed to commence on November 2020, had been put on hold owing to the COVID-19 outbreak. The project was launched by the GCC on February 11, 2020 to ensure a seamless commute and enhance the utility of the city’s arterial and major roads. An extension of the Smart City Mission, the project proposes to revamp roads spreading across 426 sq km of the city, of which 600 km are streets maintained by the GCC and 286 km include roads maintained by other departments within the GCC limits.
Phase I of the Mega Streets project will focus on 110 km of arterial roads in the localities of Anna Nagar, Tondiarpet, Velachery, Nungambakkam, Adyar and Mylapore. The major roads which will be developed in Phase I in these areas are Gandhi Mandapam Road, Sardar Patel Road, Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai (R K Salai), Lattice Bridge Road (LB Road), Cathedral Road, Royapettah High Road, Greenways Road, Kutchery Road, Cathedral Road, Thiruvottiyur High Road, New Avadi Road, Anna Nagar – 2nd, 3rd Avenues; Race Course Road and Velachery Main Road.
According to details provided by the GCC, the following roads of Phase I will be revamped under quick wins:
# Anna Nagar: 3rd Avenue Road, Kilpauk Garden Road and Pulla Avenue – 4.784 km
# Tondiarpet – George Town – Thiruvottiyur: SN Chetty Road/Ennore High Road and Thiruvottiyur High Road – 5 km
# Nungambakkam: Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and Cathedral Road – 3.470 km
# Mylapore: C P Ramasamy Salai, Kamaraj Salai and Eldams Road – 3.340 km
# Velachery: Velachery Main Road and Race Course Road – 5.658 km
# Adyar: West Canal Bank Road, East Canal Bank Road, Dr. Ramachandra Aditanar Road, Gandhi Nagar – 1st, Cross Street, 2nd Cross Street and 3rd Cross Street and Taluka Office Road – 4.675 km
Under the Mega Streets Project, a total of 13.08 km of roads are proposed to be revamped in Anna Nagar, 25.81 km in Tondiarpet – George Town – Thiruvottiyur, 12.24 km in Nungambakkam, 30.48 km in Mylapore, 9.29 km in Velachery and 20.28 km in Adyar.
Prakash said that following quick wins, the GCC will also look at working on the remaining roads of the proposed 110-km makeover.
The GCC is still waiting for funds from the government and estimates budget for quick wins to amount to Rs. 500 or 600 crore. “The government has promised funds for quick wins so we are waiting for a green signal from the government before commencing the project”, Prakash said.
The commissioner said that he is hopeful of receiving a directive from the state government regarding the funding for quick wins this week.
“The idea of Mega Streets had been conceived in 2016 and following the success of the pilot Pedestrian Plaza at T Nagar, we were convinced that we had to lay roads that would last for atleast the next 30 to 40 years. A lot of external organisations which provide monetary aid have expressed their interest in the concept”, he said.
Last year, Prakash had said that the GCC was looking at securing funds for the project, which will amount to approximately Rs. 2500 crore, from agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and German Development Bank among others.
“Though expensive, the project will be worth it in the long run”, Prakash said.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/chennai-mega-streets-project-25-km-roads-7155605/
