Those travelling to Chennai’s suburbs have reason to rejoice as their travel time could be cut down by at least an hour, thanks to the newly inaugurated second phase of the Chennai Outer Ring road. The 30-kilometre highway which connects Nemilicheri and Minjur was opened by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Monday.
The construction of the highway, which cost Rs 1025 crore and goes through Poonamallee, Avadi and Ponner, began in 2014. According to reports, the first phase between Vandalur and Nemilicheri opened six years ago. With the second phase now open, heavy vehicles can reach Tiruvallur district's port without even entering the city.
The road will also benefit motorists travelling towards Tiruvallur and Andhra Pradesh. The first phase saw close to 30,000 vehicles pass through it every day. This includes buses, multi-axle vehicles and light commercial vehicles.
The first phase of the project cost over Rs 1000 crore and was constructed through a public-private partnership model. The second phase has six minor bridges, a flyover, an interchange, a river bridge and over 10 vehicular and pedestrian underpasses. It also includes stops for truckers to take breaks. Work for the second phase had begun in March 2014.
The entire stretch, which comes up to 62 kilometres, supports six-way traffic. There are also toll booths set up to collect a fee from motorists. So far, the government has not given details on the fee rate but the toll infrastructure has reportedly already been set up.
State Rural Industries Minister P Benjamin, Tamil Culture Minister K Pandiarajan, Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan, Highways Department Secretary A Karthik and TNRDC chief general manager Y R Balaji were also present at the inauguration, which took place virtually.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami also opened an integrated operation theatre complex at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai on Monday. In addition to this, he inaugurated the construction of a super-specialty block at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.