The Rs 600-crore Ennore-Manali express road project will be completed by March, according to Mr D. Jayakumar, Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

The project was announced by the Tamil Nadu Government in 1998 and covered four major roads in the industrial hub of north Chennai — Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti Road, Ennore Expressway, Manali Oil Refinery Road and the northern portion of the Inner Ring Road from Madhavaram to Manali. But since then, it has seen slow progress.

“The Chief Minister has now mandated the project to be ready by March. It will be inaugurated in April,” said Mr Jayakumar.

The existing road along Royapuram, which is the arterial path for container traffic, is narrow – thus leading to traffic congestion and road accidents.

“With the development of a four-way road, these problems will be solved,” said Mr Jayakumar, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Royapuram constituency in North Chennai. The cost of the project, which passes through Royapuram, has escalated to Rs 600 crore from Rs 160 crore in 2002, he said.

“We have been hearing such statements from every government official. I wish his words come true,” said an official representing a leading container freight station located on the Ennore-Manali highway while reacting to Mr Jayakumar's statement.

A decade-long delay in repairing and improving the vital link road to the Chennai port has affected the entire container trade, which depends on this arterial road to connect with rest of the country. The Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project is intended to enable free flow of truck traffic from and to the Chennai port in North Chennai.

Every day, the Chennai port handles nearly 5,000 containers; and trucks need to take the Ennore-Manali road for entry to and exit from the port. The execution of the project was delayed due to evacuation of large number of people on either side of the road, the official said on conditions of anonymity.

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