PMK asks TN govt to take up scraps NHAI road project with Centre

PMK founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss has called upon the Tamil Nadu government to immediately take up with the Central government the issue of the scrapped four-lane Mamallapuram-Puducherry stretch of the East Coast Road (ECR).

The Centre has terminated the project being done by the National Highway Authority of India at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore under the Bharatmala Pariyojana.

NHAI Chairperson, Alka Upadhyaya had, in a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary V.Irai Anbu in April this year, said that the state had not responded to two letters written by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the NHAI in February and March, respectively. The letters, according to the NHAI Chairperson, were written to expedite the issue of a no-objection certificate for handing over the stretch for development.

The NHAI had planned to four-lane the stretch for enhanced speed and safety after it was notified as a National Highway in 2018 but the work did not commence due to the state government not providing the no-objection certificate.

Noting that the state government had, in its budget for 2022-23, stated that bottlenecks in handing over the East Coast Road beyond Mamalappuram to the NHAI have been addressed and that the work for widening the four-lane would commence soon, the PMK chief said that even after the state government made it clear that all the issues were settled with NHAI, he was not able to understand the reason behind scrapping the project.

He called upon Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to immediately take up the matter with the Central government and to clear the issue.