The Hindu Business Line : Pact signed for road project

Madurai April 1 To improve the road connectivity of Tuticorin Port, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed at Tuticorin among the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Tuticorin Port Trust (TPT) and Tuticorin Port Road Company Llt (TPRCL), New Delhi, the special purpose vehicle of the project.

The agreement envisages four-laning of the existing two lines of Tirunelveli-Tuticorin road from 4/0 km to km 51/2 of National Highways 7A.

Equity capital

The equity capital of Tuticorin Port for the project will be 11 per cent of the total project cost of Rs 231.20 crore or Rs 25 crore whichever is less.

The MoU was signed by Mr S. Natarajan, FA & CAO, of behalf of Tuticorin Port, Mr Ashok Wasson, Chief General Manager (CGM) on behalf of NHAI and Mr Sharma Monoj, General Manager, NHAI, on behalf of TPRCL, in the presence of the Chairman, TPT, Mr N.K. Raghupathy, who on the occasion, handed over a cheque for Rs 5 crore to the CGM, NHAI, as the first instalment, a TPT press release said.

According to the Chairman, TPT, the four-laning project may be completed in a phased manner, with the road from the boundary of Tuticorin Port to the Tirunelveli bye-pass roundana taken-up initially and the road from Tuticorin to Vallanadu thereafter..