Date:12/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/12/stories/2008121254650600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Now it’s trade that voices concern at delay in port connectivity project

City Bureau

Condition of north Chennai roads worsen after rain, hits Manali units

— Photo: N. Ravi Kumar

WEATHER-BEATEN: Several stretches of the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti (TPP) Road, a gateway to Chennai, have been left unusable following the recent torrential rain.

CHENNAI: It was the turn of the export-import trade on Wednesday to express concern over the delay in completion of the Ennore Manali Road Infrastructure Project envisaged to connect the Chennai and Ennore ports.

It covers four major roads in the industrial hub of north Chennai — Tiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti (TPP) Road, Ennore Expressway, Manali Oil Refinery Road and northern portion of the Inner Ring Road from Madhavaram to Manali.

The delay in its completion has prompted Chennai Trade Co-ordination Committee to demand that the Centre announce a time-frame to address infrastructure and connectivity issue. The CTCC, formed in October, comprises representatives of various chambers of commerce and trade and related bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry and Custom House Agents Association.

Consultative Committee of City Chambers of Commerce chairman Umesh Pujara said: “We would like to know whether the project is still on and if so, the completion date. Further delay will affect the industrial and economic development of the State and the trade would be forced to ship its products from the neighbouring ports at triple the cost. As per the revised plan, the project was to be completed by end-2008,” he said. Though the trade had increased manifold over last five years, the road network continues to remain the same.

Movement of goods hit

Lorry and truck owners have already threatened to go on strike from the midnight of December 20.

Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Lorry, Tipper, Trailor, Tanker and Van Owner’s Welfare Committee said it would launch an agitation if the State government did not repair the roads in north Chennai on a war footing.

Representatives of the National Association of Container Freight Stations also said that they would stop evacuation of import containers from the port terminal to all container freight stations from January 10.

LPG supplies delayed

The condition of the TPP Road, which worsened after the recent torrential rain, is affecting business of several industrial units in and around Manali. Residents of New Manali Town said there had been several fatal accidents on the road, which for most part of the day is choked with heavy vehicles.

The road condition is also cited as the reason for the delay in supplies of liquefied petroleum gas to thousands of households served by Indian Oil Corporation in the city. Most of the 80-odd distributors to the bottling plant of IOC in Ennore are able to get only one load (a little over 300 cylinders) every day as against their requirement of at least two.

A senior official of the IOC said the bad roads are coming in the way of the distributors meeting the increased demand for the LPG this time of the year.

Some distributors say the time taken for supplying the refills is over ten days, after the mandatory 21-day from the previous supply, with many attached to Ennore.

Maintenance work

Official sources said the contract for maintenance on the TPP Road has been awarded to a contractor, who had also commenced work.

However, the recent rain caused the work to stop. Maintenance work, which includes filling up of pot holes, is expected to commence shortly.

The officials said that the police had agreed to regulate traffic on the road, once maintenance work recommenced.

It would be restricted to one lane. Maintenance work is expected to be completed before the end of January 2009.

The tender for improving the TPP Road was called for in 2005 and a Rs.40-crore tender awarded to a company, which also commenced work but due to delay in land acquisition, it could not form the proposed four-lane road.

The company’s contract was terminated recently and bids called again.

The land acquisition is in its final stages.

By March 2009, work on the four-lane road with two service roads each on both sides is expected to begin. The project cost now stands at Rs.600 crore.

(Inputs from N. Anand, Deepa H Ramakrishnan and N. Ravi Kumar)