The state government has appointed Booz Allen Hamilton of the US to formulate a report on strengthening the institutional structure of the state highways department. The report submitted by the consultant is under government consideration, said Abul Hassan, secretary (highways).

Speaking at a seminar on `Milestones: Paving the way for road development in Tamil Nadu' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Hassan said improvement work on 1270 kilometres of state highways and major district roads (MDR) at a cost of Rs 1,320 crore has been proposed with the orld Bank aid in mind.

Apart form this, 49-km stretch of state highways and 133-km of MDR have been proposed for widening; 1189 kilometres of state highways and 1229 kilometres of MDR have been earmarked for strengthening at a cost of Rs 518 crore.

Moreover, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to go in for cement concretisation of NH 45 from Muthusamy bridge near the Port to Tambaram. The 28-km stretch is estimated to cost Rs 150 crore.

The department has approached the Centre for funding the project. A detailed feasibility and project project formulated by a Delhi-based company for the purpose has been placed before the government for consideration. The whole project will be implemented in two phases: Phase-I is for a stretch of 12 km from the Muthusamy bridge till Kathipara junction, near Guindy at a cost of Rs 69 crore, phase-II is a 16-km stretch between the Kathipara junction and Tambaram at Rs 80 crore.

Other projects in pipeline of NHAI include improvement to some of NH to four lanes and forming bypasses, four-laning of NH 45 from Chengalpet to Trichy and then to Madurai and the sames changes to NH 7 from Athipali to Krishnagiri.