Chennai, Ennore ports to handover Rs 24 crore

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on December 11, 2010:

CHENNAI: With a view to showing their commitment towards the speedy implementation of important port connectivity project, Chennai and Ennore ports are set to handover a cheque for Rs 24 crore as their part contribution in the presence of Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan at the port premises on Saturday.

According to sources, Chennai Port Trust would handover a cheque of Rs 19 crore, while the Ennore Port is set to give Rs five crore as its contribution to keep the Rs 600-crore Ennore-Manali road improvement project (EMRIP) alive.

It may be noted that the Chennai Port had already paid about Rs 48 crore as its initial contribution and Ennore Port had paid Rs eight crore toward the project.

The port trust would contribute the increased equity share of Rs 139.80 crore and loan/debt contribution of Rs 110 crore towards the project.

The works came to a standstill after the port trust delayed paying its share as the project cost was escalated from Rs 150 crore to Rs 600 crore. 

After the port trust expressed its commitment to contribute the increased equity share, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has floated a fresh tender last month and now the technical evaluation of eight successful bidders were on.

The project, which was conceptualised in 1998, envisages improvement of about 30 km road network in North Chennai to ease flow of truck traffic from ChPT and improve road connectivity between ports and national highway network.

Besides the improvement and strengthening of Manali Oil Refinery Road and Northern Segment of Inner Ring Road, the project also envisages the widening of the nine km stretch of the Thiruvotriyur-Ponneri- Panchetti (TPP) Road in to four lanes highway with service roads on both sides.