As per provisions of the NHAI Act, the land should be handed over to the road developers within six months of ... Read More

CHENNAI: Following the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) revising stalled road projects worth 2,774 crore in mid-January, the Tamil Nadu government has asked the district collectors to expedite land acquisition to ensure smooth implementation of the projects.

NHAI called off the projects in November, 2019 as the government could not hand over the needed 473 hectares, though it acquired 385 hectares. Now, the government has assured NHAI that the remaining 88 hectares and the compensation process would be completed in a couple of months. As per provisions of the NHAI Act, the land should be handed over to the road developers within six months of the date of signing of the agreement.

The fresh tenders are for four-laning of the Villupuram-Puducherry section ( 998.7 crore) and Puducherry-Poondiyankuppam section ( 1,294.5 crore) of National Highway 45 A and two-laning of the Meensurutti- Chidambaram stretch ( 482 crore) along NH 227. These projects were stalled in November last year citing delays in land acquisition.

Chief secretary K Shanmugam on Monday held a review meeting with collectors of 26 districts through video-conferencing. Land acquisition for the road projects was among the top agenda in the meeting. "CS has given specific instructions to collectors to speed up land acquisition," an official said. A district collector who did not want to be named confirmed that they have been given deadlines to complete the acquisition.

Four-laning of the 180 km stretch connecting Villupuram and Nagapattinam is to be implement in four phases. The project is aimed at improving traffic movement along the south-eastern coast and facilitate free movement of heavy vehicles to ports in Karaikal and Chennai besides bringing down travel time between Chennai and Nagapattinam. It is expected to bring more business to industries in Villupuram, Cuddalore and Puducherry. The departments of public work and agriculture delayed in fixing value of structures and trees to calculate the compensation to be paid to landowners. This led to the termination of the project. With the government assuring land, NHAI this January revived the project and floated fresh tenders.

