Work On Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway To Start Soon

Traveling between the two important cities of south India will finally become easier as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the work on Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway would begin soon while delivering her Budget 2020-21 speech on February 1.  While the Centre had previously approved the funding for the highway that would cut down the travel time between the two cities to four hours from the existing seven hours, but the land acquisition has delayed the project by almost two years. Once operational, the new project will bring life to sleepy suburban areas of Tamil Nadu.

Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway Route

The Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway is a proposed corridor that would start at Hoskote in Bengaluru and would end in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. It is a 268-km road that would allow vehicles to ply at a speed of 120 km per hour. The proposed road will run parallel to existing to the National Highway-4 which is also the highest traffic carrying corridor of India. The proposed expressway will facilitate high-speed travel on the proposed corridor, which will have a width of 90 metres. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has projected a peak traffic of 45,000 to 60,000 passenger car units a day along the corridor. The two cities are currently connected by two highways: One runs 335-km via Kolar, Chittoor, Ranipet and Kanchipuram, while the other runs 372-km via Krishnagiri and Ranipet. The proposed road will be built in five sections of Bengaluru-Kolar, Kolar-Palamaner, Palamaner-Chittoor, Chittoor-Kanchipuram and Kanchipuram-Chennai.

 Current status

The work was expected to begin by March 2018 but has been put on hold due to funding and land acquisition issues. The land acquisition for a total of 2,800 hectares is right now in an advanced stage while the NHAI is procuring various permissions, including environmental clearance, for the greenfield project along with the land acquisition.

In Tamil Nadu, the final notification for the acquisition was recently published for 540 acres and investors would soon get the compensation from the revenue department while in Karnataka, 85 per cent of landowners has been paid compensation. According to the NHAI note, there would be 60 major bridges, 97 minor bridges, four road-over bridges at railway crossings, nine flyovers and three elephant passes, among other structures.  Since the road passes through seven km of the Royal Elephant Reserve in Andhra Pradesh, and about 300 metres of the Mahimandalam forest in Vellore district, the subways would be constructed for the vehicles.

Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor To Be Extended To Coimbatore, Kochi

The Centre has decided to extend the Chennai-Bengaluru industrial corridor to Coimbatore and Kochi as a part of the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT). Around 1,800 acres of land will have to be acquired for the manufacturing cluster along side the Thrissur-Palakkad area. The Kerala chief minister has asked various departments to speed up land acquisition process and identify appropriate land to set up the manufacturing units.

The setting up of the corridor would contribute to developing manufacturing industries in the region and transform the Kochi-Palakkad region into a major manufacturing hub in south. The state and Centre would jointly form a special purpose vehicle to manage the clusters. The cluster in Kerala will come up on either side of the Kochi-Salem national highway and is expected to provide 10,000 jobs.

Impact on real estate

While the Japanese investment in Tamil Nadu is on rise, the industrial hubs planned along the corridor are also attracting them. Areas such as Panniyur, Walajapet, Banavaram and Keezhveernam are marked as upcoming employment hubs and would be linked to harbours for trade. Japanese companies have already conducted the detailed study of these areas and are planning to focus their investment here. Other areas along the expressways such as Ranipet, Ponnapanthangal and Arakonam will also benefit.

Other than this, the proposed expressway would bring life to the farther suburb of Chennai, Sriperumbudur, the starting point of the highway. Also known as the automobile hub, the area offers over 100 ready-to-move-in projects in the price range of Rs 2,500-3,000 per sq ft. Though the property prices in the area have been stable, prices may go up. While a 1BHK is available at Rs 19 lakh and onwards, a 2BHK of a similar layout is also available at the same price. Few real estate developers have also come up with plotted development projects where all the basic amenities are being offered by the builder.