CHENNAI: Travel time between Chennai and Tirupati is set to come down by 30 to 45 minutes, as the four-laning of the 18-km greenfield highway between Thiruninravur and Tiruvallur is set to be completed by September.
The under-construction four-lane highway connects the Tiruvallur Bypass at Thirupachur with the Veppampattu Bypass at Thiruninravur on the Chennai-Tirupati Highway, passing through Thaneerkulam, Thozhur, and Sevvapet.
As of August 1, 15 km out of the total 18 km stretch has been completed. Once the widening project is completed, the 18-km stretch will be made an access-controlled, fully fenced national highway, with service roads provided on both sides, according to officials from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The new stretch will allow motorists travelling towards Tiruttani and Tirupati to bypass Tiruvallur town and Veppampattu areas — one of the most congested parts of the Chennai-Tirupati Highway (CTH). It will also help them avoid the narrow and heavily congested Thiruninravur-Tiruvallur section, where the road shrinks to just two lanes at several points.
Official sources from the NHAI said the entire 62-km stretch from Thiruninravur to Tirupati will be an access-controlled (fully fenced) four-lane road with service roads on both sides. The widening project was taken up in 2022 at a cost of Rs 304 crore.
The design also includes provisions to expand the Thiruninravur-Tiruvallur bypass section into six lanes in the future, without requiring additional land acquisition. Simultaneously, the four-laning of the 44-km Tiruvallur to Tamil Nadu-Andhra border stretch of CTH was also launched last year at an estimated cost of Rs 750 crore.
A senior NHAI official stated, “The four-laning of the 44-km stretch from Thirupachur (Tiruvallur) to Tirupati is currently under way, with service roads planned on either side. The work has just begun, and about 12% has been completed so far.”
The Chennai-Tirupati Highway, which commences at the Padi-Korattur junction, currently has four lanes for 22 km until Thiruninravur, and the same had been proposed to be widened into six lanes by the state highways department. However, the works remain a non-starter due to issues in land acquisition.
S Ramesh Varadhan, a Korattur resident, said, “It takes almost two hours to reach Tiruvallur from Korattur due to speed breakers every 200 metres along CTH Road. Traffic congestion is constant through Avadi, Ambattur, Pattabiram, and Thiruninravur. TN should construct an elevated corridor from Padi to Thiruninravur to ease travel to Tirupati.”
1 Connects: Tiruvallur Bypass at Thirupachur with the Veppampattu Bypass at Thiruninravur on the Chennai-Tirupati Highway
2 Bypasses: Heavily-congested Tiruvallur town and Veppampattu areas and Thiruninravur-Tiruvallur section
3 TRAVEL TIME: 2-hour travel from Padi to Tiruvallur (35kms) reduced by 30 mins