L&T Ship Building Ltd is likely to form a joint venture with Ennore Port Ltd and the Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), to build a 25.5 km road that would connect Ennore port and Kattupalli port.

The road project is estimated to cost Rs 360 crore.

L&T Ship Building Ltd is currently putting up a ship-building unit at Kattupalli, some 50 km north of Chennai. Part of the project is a deep draft port, meant mainly for captive purposes, but one that would also handle commercial (container) cargo.

Originally, the National Highways Authority of India was supposed to build the road connecting the two ports, but it is learnt that TIDCO – Tamil Nadu Government's industrial promotion arm – has proposed that instead of NHAI, a joint venture of L&T, Ennore Port and TIDCO undertake the road project.

To implement the road project some 400 acres would need to be acquired.

“The project has found to be viable on a build-operate-transfer basis,” it is learnt from sources in the Department of Highways, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Japanese help

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Tamil Nadu Government has named the ‘Outer Ring Road Phase-II' project among the projects that are to be undertaken with the assistance of Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

The Outer Ring Road project is for building a road that would bypass Chennai, connecting Vandalur – a suburb that lies just outside Chennai to the south — to Minjur, some 40 km to the north of the city.

The Phase-I, which stretches 30 km from Vandalur to Nemilichery, is currently under way. It is being put up at a cost of Rs 1,080 crore.

The Phase-II would link Nemilichery to Minjur. The 32-km-road would cost Rs 1,075 crore to build.

Once the project is completed vehicles that, for instance, take cargo from districts lying to the south of Chennai to the Ennore port, would be able to do so without entering the city.

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