CHENNAI: The board of the Tamil Nadu State Highways Authority (TNSHA) has constituted a technical committee to explore ways to reduce the cost of the proposed 13.3-km four-lane elevated corridor on the Thiruvanmiyur-Uthandi stretch of the East Coast Road (ECR) from Rs 2,100 crore to Rs 1,500 crore. The contract was awarded just two months before the Assembly elections.
Sources told TNIE that the technical specifications proposed for the project are higher than the standards typically followed by agencies such as the National Highways Authority of India and other state highway authorities.
“While the cost of construction materials cannot be reduced, it was found that specifications related to piers, foundation length and depth, bituminous layer width, and other structural components exceed what is necessary for a four-lane elevated corridor.
The enhanced flyover design specifications necessitate greater quantities of construction materials, such as bitumen, cement, sand, reinforcement steel bars, and other inputs, thereby increasing the overall project cost,” an official said.
The official added that revising the specifications to align with actual project requirements would reduce the quantity of materials needed, as well as associated manpower and infrastructure costs, ultimately lowering the overall project expenditure up to 25% to 30%.
“If the contractor is willing to execute the project based on the revised specifications, they may continue with the work. However, if the revised terms are found to be unviable, the contractor may choose to withdraw from the project,” explained the officer.
TNSHA which is implementing the project issued the Letter of Award in February this year and subsequently signed an agreement with the contractor. “As per the agreement, the contractor has been given 180 days from the date of award of the contract to commence civil works. At this stage, cancelling the contract would result in litigations. So, the project cost is planned to be reduced by 25% to 30% by changing the specifications of the design,” added the official.
The four-lane elevated corridor, with a width of 17.25 metres, is expected to reduce travel time between Tidel Park (Thiruvanmiyur) and Uthandi from approximately 60 minutes to 15 minutes.
