Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor DPR by year-end

The detailed project report (DPR) on building the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor project indicating the outlay, mode of funding and other aspects will by ready by the end of this year, a senior official in the central government said here Friday.

"The Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor will be a reality. The project report is being prepared by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japanese government will fund the project," T.K.A. Nair, advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said.

He said the report would indicate the overall project contours, outlay, mode of funding and other aspects.

"In the first phase, the corridor will be up to Bangalore from Chennai and later it will be extended to Andhra Pradesh. Discussions are on with Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh," Nair added.

He said the prime Minister and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe agreed on the project during the former's recent visit to Japan.

Nair was here to participate in a function in the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) and also discuss issues on improving the infrastructure here so that Japanese companies located here and in Bangalore can move their goods smoothly for exports.

He said there were around 400 Japanese companies in and around Chennai and they wanted the road and other infrastructure to be improved to enable them to ship out their goods smoothly.

Nair said he would be meeting senior officials of ports, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Southern Railways, and state public works department to discuss bottle-necks in infrastructure and the ways to remove them.

He said he would be discussing a road-over-bridge (ROB) at Attipattu near here.

Japanese power equipment-maker Toshiba JSW Turbines and Generator has been saying that the existing bridge cannot bear the weight of its turbine and generators that would weigh around 500 tonnes. The company wants a new bridge to be constructed at Ennore here.

The Japanese prime minister had announced 13 billion yen for the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme.