Around 60% of the work to construct the greenfield, access- controlled 6-lane wide Rs. 3998 crore Chittoor – Thatchur National Highway has been completed. The 116.100 km long NH716B is being constructed to carry south-bound traffic from Bangalore to Tamil Nadu from the Bangalore – Chennai Expressway (BCE) in Andhra Pradesh at Chittoor to the Chennai Peripheral Road in Tiruvallur district.
Sources in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that though the project was envisaged mainly to connect container traffic with Kamarajar and Kattupalli ports, avoiding Chennai city, the road will be a boon for residents of north Chennai who want to reach Tirupati and Bengaluru city.
“Those proceeding to Tirupati can get off at the Nagari interchange and reach the temple city and those going to Bengaluru, can do so by getting on to the BCE at Chittoor. The road is also connected to the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road, which means those heading to the south, may get onto it.”
The road is being constructed by four contractors where the first 43.800 km starts from Chittoor, the next 17.5 km from Pallipattu, the next 34.66 km runs from Nagari and the final package of 20.06 km from Uthukottai. As the NH runs along the inter-State border, it passes places from both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Though at present, the road is six lanes wide, lands have been acquired to expand the road to 10 lanes width if need be.
Around 10 major bridges, 33 minor bridges, 2 rail over bridges, 60 vehicular underpasses, and eight interchanges, and adequate lighting have been provided at these junctions for localities that lie along the alignment.
Lands belonging to reserved forests – 14.03 hectares in Tamil Nadu from Thirumalairajupettai and Nediyam forests and 4.54 hectares in Andhra Pradesh – have been diverted for the project for a period of 25 years. Compensatory afforestation has been taken up by the State Forest department over an extent of 28 hectares at Konasamuthiram and Mylarwada RFs in Tamil Nadu. In Andhra Pradesh, lands from the Pulikondram forest have been utilised. “We have provided measures including construction of culverts as per the Forest Department’s requirements.”
As part of the greening efforts along the NH’s median, 8,000 ornamental saplings have been planted and avenue tree plantation has begun. Over 25,000 saplings of year-old tree varieties are to be planted. The NHAI will construct two way-side amenities with facilities for the use of truckers and for non-commercial vehicles as well. These will come up near Chittoor and Uthukottai. Closed tolling system (the location and time of entry/exit of the vehicle will be taken into account and toll collected) will be implemented in the project, which is expected to be completed by December 2025. The foundation stone was laid for the project in 2021 and work began in 2023-24.
Published – January 09, 2025 01:14 am IST
