About:
- According to the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, the project developed at an estimated cost of ₹5,800 crore will be completed by December 2024.
- It will serve as a dedicated freight corridor for Chennai bound port traffic and increase the handling capacity of Chennai Port by 48% and subsequently reduce the waiting time at the port by six hours.
- The project nearly doubles Chennai port’s container handling capacity to 2.64 million TEUs.
- In July, 2022, tenders were called for the construction of a double tier four-lane elevated corridor on Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) mode under the Bharatmala Pariyojana.
Bharatmala Pariyojana
- It is a new umbrella programme started in 2017 under the ultimate administrative control of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, and will be implemented by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
- This will be done by development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field expressways.
Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC):
- It is a type of Public funding Model.
- In such types of models, full freedom to plan, design and construction is given to the private contractor and core requirements are specified in schedules.
- Payments by the Government are linked to specified stages of construction.
- The Contract Price is subject to adjustment on account of variation in the cost and change in scope ordered by employer.
