On Monday, the Chennai government, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Chennai Port Trust, and the Indian Navy inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the Rs 5,855 crore Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated expressway.

The MoU signing took place in the presence of MK Stalin, chief minister, and general (retd) V K Singh, minister of state for road transport and highways.

The 20.6 km long corridor would be two tiers between Koyambedu and Napier bridge, and the first tier would be only for local traffic with 13 ramps. This comes a decade after the AIADMK government stopped the project launched by the Congress-led UPA government.

On May 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate, execute, and inaugurate projects of four ministries, including the elevated expressway, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. Tenders will be floated soon for the project. The project is planned to be finished in 30 months from the date of award of the agreement.The first tier will be toll-free, said a source.

In February 2012, the state Public Work Department (PWD) issued a stop-work notice to the NHAI alleging that the alignment troubled flood discharge. The NHAI had contended that the alignment was finalised considering all elements of optimum utilisation of river boundary, geometry, and minimum acquisition of private land. The project price then was Rs 1,615 crore.

The previous AIADMK government led by Edappadi K Palaniswami supported the minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari's interest in reviving the project.

The Chennai Port has two container terminals with a capacity of 2.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and the expressway will realise the potential.

Now the state and Centre are aligned for early execution. The authority hopes that work will be awarded by this year and will begin soon. It will be a lifeline for the port once finished, which will assist us in realising our cargo potential and it will also allow city traffic in a big way, Chennai Port Trust chairperson Sunil Paliwal told the media.

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