Work on the 96 km stretch of the Chennai-Bengaluru expressway is going on at a swift pace with nearly 15% of the work (14.4 km) on the Tamil Nadu side has been completed according to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
The Chennai-Bengaluru highway runs through three states namely TN, AP and Karnataka.
Officials of the NHAI said that the construction of the road work will be completed by 15-16 months. The challenge during the rains was getting earth and as ponds and lakes were brimming, it was difficult; but since water has started receding, earth can be sourced from the waterbodies.
In Tamil Nadu, a total of 833.91 hectares of land will be acquired for the project and out of this 95% of the land has already been acquired and the rest will be done soon.
The project work has been divided into four packages on the Tamil Nadu side, 24 km between Gudipala in AP and Walajahpet in TN, 24.5 km between Walajapet to Arakkonam, 25.5 km between Arakkonam and Kancheepuram and 32.1 km between Kanchipuram and Sriperumbudur. Of this, more than 10 km is on the Andhra side.
According to the project design, there are 54 bridges, 13 vehicular subways and toll plazas that falls in TN. The Bengaluru – Chennai expressway national highway project is expected to be completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 16,730 crore.
The highway will help reduce travel time between Bengaluru and Chennai by two to three hours. It takes between five to seven hours currently to travel on the existing 326-km Chennai-Bengaluru highway which handles more than 75,000 vehicles a day.