With Ennore Port already planning a detour to skip the congested railheads at Chennai Central and Egmore to reach Avadi by rail, the Tamil Nadu government has asked it to look at the possibility of extending the link to Vandalur. While the Avadi grid would help the port feed cargo to Bangalore and beyond to Mumbai, the Vandalur link would be the gateway to Southern Tamil Nadu, as they would join their respective mother rail lines at those points.
While the Avadi link would run bang in the middle of Outer Ring Road Phase-II, the extension to Vandalur would be along Outer Ring Road Phase-I.
In fact, Ennore Port has already acquired a 22-metre strip of land along and across the Outer Ring Road Phase-II project for the rail link, which would start at Nandiambakkam and terminate at Nemilicherry, which is close to Avadi. The Nandiambakkam-Nemilicherry link also has the potential to connect the industrial hubs of Sriperumbudur and Oragadam, the Ennore Port said.
The proposal to extend the rail link to Vandalur came up at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Sheela Balakrishnan on February 12, which discussed the Nandiambakkam-Nemilicherry link. The government felt the project would serve the State better if it is extended to Vandalur as it would give the port robust rail access to south Tamil Nadu through the existing Southern Railway line there.
The State government also asked the port to examine the feasibility of laying two tracks – one for passenger service and another for goods traffic, informed sources. The proposal came up when the meeting discussed whether the land reserved for the freight rail link would affect passenger transit. Ennore Port was then asked to examine the feasibility of forming two tracks, which should facilitate passenger and goods traffic.
The Nandiambakkam-Nemilicherry rail link project is part of Ennore Port’s plans to expand its cargo capacity from 30 million tonnes to 66 million tonnes per annum.
The Outer Ring Road was envisage by the first master plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area to release stress on the city’s traffic movement by linking five national highways. The 62.3 km long Outer Ring Road connects NH 45 (GST Road) at Vandalur, NH 4 (GWT Road) at Nazarathpet, NH 205 (CTH Road) at Nemilicherry (Thiruninravur), NH 5 (GNT Road) at Nallur and TPP Road at Minjur.