The government has decided to contribute equity to two key port connectivity projects in Tamil Nadu. In a meeting held under the chairmanship of shipping minister GK Vasan in Chennai on February 8, the government agreed to provide necessary funds for acquiring land and rehabilitating dislocated people to start work on Chennai Port-Maduravoyal and Ennore-Manali road projects, a development that is expected to put the projects on fast track.
The two projects were slated to be completed by March 2012, but have been stuck due to cost sharing and escalation issues. Now, to ensure that these are completed within the specified time, Vasan also decided to raise the equity participation of Chennai Port Trust to Rs 140 crore from Rs 38 crore earlier and to double the contribution of Ennore Port Trust to Rs 34 crore for the respective projects.
?The shipping ministry has allowed release of money from the ports. Once the state government also contributes its share of expenditure, the ports will meet the remaining requirement through loans,? a senior government official told FE. ?The ministry has also approved the increased cost of Rs 600 crore for Ennore-Manali project,? the official added.
The 19-km Chennai Port-Maduravoyal project was launched last year by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, delay by the shipping ministry in clearing the Chennai Port?s share of land acquisition and rehabilitation cost led to slow progress of the project. The estimated project cost of Rs 1,655 crore includes Rs 310 crore to acquire land and rehabilitating dislocated people. The same is to be shared by the Tamil Nadu government and Chennai Port Trust equally.
Completion of this project would facilitate faster movement of transport vehicles to and from Chennai Port and is likely to reduce the traffic on Poonamallee High Road, which is one of the roads linking the port with the outside facilities.
The cost of Ennore-Manali project, which is in the pipeline since 1998, has increased from Rs 150 crore to Rs 600 crore due to changes in the original development plan like addition of service road to four lanes of Thiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti road, an underpass in Ennore Expressway and drainage on Manali Oil Refinery Road.
Earlier, the government was in disagreement on the escalated cost, and this led to original contractor National Asphalt withdrawing from the project. The National Highways Authority of India has to re-tender the project now.
The meeting was attended by state highways minister Vellakoil Saminathan, Ennore Port chairman and managing director S Velumani, Chennai Port Trust CMD Subhash Kumar and officials from NHAI.
