Work on six-lane highway to begin next week

Chennai: The construction of a six-lane highway on the Chennai-Tada section of NH-5 will begin next week, according to a press release.

This was announced by Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu during his review of the ongoing National Highway Development Projects (NHDP) in Tamil Nadu in Chennai.

The Minister also informed that the entire 342-km Golden Quadrilateral in the State has been completed and the same would be widened to six lanes along with 93 km of Tambaram-Tindivanam section of NH-45 under Phase-V of NHDP.

He added that out of 756 km under the North-South corridor scheme, a stretch of 97.4 km has already been completed and the work for widening 576.6 km is going on.

About 650 km would be completed by March 2009 and the entire work would be completed by June 2009.

Under the NHDP Phase-III, 1465 km would be constructed in the State, out of which work is under way in 527 km and the remaining 938 km is under various stages of implementation. For the Tirupati-Tiruthani section (NH-205) and Coimbatore-Mettupalayam (NH-67) the bids are due on Januray 28. Construction of four lanes in the Tindivanam-Tiruchi-Madurai sections of NH-45 and NH-45B has almost been completed and the completed sections have been opened to traffic, the Minister added.

In all, about 930-km length is expected to be completed by March-April 2009.