CHENNAI: It was in February 2013 that the State Highways Department was handed over the project to build a grid of roads along the 62km Outer Ring Road (ORR). But four years down the line, the idea still remains only on paper. Despite allocating `5.22 crore to prepare a detailed project report (DPR), it is learnt that the report is yet to be placed before the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), which is working on the project along with the Highways Department.
The ORR which forms a semi-circle on the periphery of the city from Minjur in the north to Vandalur in the south, was planned to decongest the inner parts of the city. Nearly half the road is open for traffic and the remaining is under construction. Along with this new road, a set of 18 road grid linkages were proposed to help development along the stretch.
The ‘2km x 2km’ grid would have provisions for open space area, homes for low income groups, commercial and other social facilities. Separate developmental regulations and financial concessions were envisaged to incentivise development in the grid road area.
A Government Order of February 1 asked the State Highways Department to prepare the DPR. But things did not move until August 2015, when CMDA took up the task of preparing the plans for grid roads. And curiously, even before the agenda was taken up in its meeting, a letter from CMDA stated that as early as March, it had been decided to involve the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University and School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada.
Also, the CMDA took up the project even without a proper Government Order, taking up the work which was originally assigned to the Highways Department. What has raised eyebrows in certain quarters is that the CMDA chose not to depute its own planner to design the roads and prepare the project report. It has outsourced it to students of these two institutes in January 2016 by signing a contract. The contract ended last September, but it is reliably learnt that the report is yet to be placed before CMDA.
Interestingly, the then chief planner of CMDA is now a visiting faculty for the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, one of the two institutes that got the contract. But, the larger question is over the failure of the Highways Department in executing the work allotted to it way back in 2013.
When Express queried about this, officials in the Highways Department merely said they are working along with CMDA on the project and refused to divulge more details on the fate of the DPR of the grid roads project.
