State govt. waives royalty on blue metal for Madhavaram-Nallur elevated corridor

The State government has waived the royalty for mines and minerals that it will have received during the construction of the 9.6 km long Madhavaram-Nallur elevated corridor.  

 The State government has waived the royalty for mines and minerals that it will have received during the construction of the 9.6 km long Madhavaram-Nallur elevated corridor.  

Sources in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which will be constructing the ₹1,700 crore 6-lane-wide facility that will carry around 70,000 vehicles a day, said that the Tamil Nadu government waived royalty for a few other projects as well. “This will help cut costs and also is a step to encourage creation of infrastructure,” said a retired engineer. 

Though the report for the project that will help vehicles to zip over 10 traffic signals is ready, it awaits funds for the work to commence. It will take two years to complete the corridor. The corridor would be connected to the Chennai bypass and land just before the Nallur toll plaza. Land of 1.83 acre needs to be acquired for the project at Madhavaram and Nallur. Acquisition would cost around ₹120 crore.  

Tiruvallur Member of Parliament Jayakumar, who recently wrote to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin urging them to speed up the project, said that traffic jams were very common in the stretch. “I have asked the Central government to include this project in this year’s budget plan and allocate at least a portion of it this year itself. Vehicles struggle every evening in the traffic. Motorists have been demanding that the project be implemented soon,” he said. 

K. Suresh Kumar, a resident of Janapanchatram, said that it was high time that the project was implemented. “The Prime Minister is expected to visit the city on Saturday, hopefully he will make an announcement regarding this project. The number of vehicles taking this road has increased. It takes motorists at least 15 minutes to just cross the Madhavaram junction in the evenings. You can see vehicles jostling for space from end to end,” he said.