IT corridor road widening to be completed by mid-April '06

The project to widen the 20-kilometre stretch of Chennai's Old Mahabalipuram Road, which links key software development centres to the city, is to be completed by mid-April 2006.

The mid-April 2006 deadline was included in an agreement signed last month between IT Expressway Limited (the special purpose vehicle to implement the project) and Ahmed Zaki Resources Bhd, a Malaysian civil contractor engaged to widen the road.

Officials connected with the project said that the three-kilometre stretch of Old Mahabalipuram Road, starting at Madhya Kailash, would be widened in six months. Acquisition of land on this stretch has already been completed, and widening work is being executed.

The civil contractor would soon start widening the road at Siruseri, which marks the end of the 20-kilometre stretch that is covered under the project.

The civil works for the project would require an amount of Rs 130 crore, and another Rs 50 crore would be needed for the land acquisition.

IT Expressway is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), where the state government and IL&FS have equal stakes.

In February 2005, IT Expressway and the state government entered into a partnership and development agreement to implement the road widening project.

The state government is to support the project's civil works with a grant of Rs 34 crore to IT Expressway. IT Expressway is to borrow the balance required to fund the civil works. The project envisages widening the road to six lanes, add a service road and another path for cyclists and non-motor vehicles.