The MRTS project, which has till now been progressing at a snail’s pace, has received a boost with the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) sanctioning Rs 1.97 crore as the state’s share of the the second phase of the project (Thirumylai to Velachery).
The Metropolitan Transport Projects (Railways) has requested the state government/CMDA to release Rs 1.97 crore towards the government of Tamil Nadu’s share for the project for the current year (2011-12).
This comes in the wake of the review of the implementation of the project at the meeting of the high-level coordination committee for the MRTS projects held by the vice-chairman, CMDA, on November 17, 2010.
The CMDA had requested the government to accord sanction for the approval. Acceding the CMDA’s request, the state government has sanctioned the amount, according to a recent G.O. dated March 7 and issued by the housing and urban development secretary, K.K. Phanindra Reddy.
The state government has to share 67 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 605 crore for the section that will cover 10.36 km. CMDA is entitled to a service charge of 1.5 per cent of the total sanction towards planning, monitoring and coordinating the project.
Though phase 1 (Beach to Thirumylai) of the project got the clearance from the Railway Board in 1984, it was commissioned only in October 1997.
The second phase was completed in 2007. The extension work to St. Thomas Mount from Velachery has been marred by land acquisition problems causing inordinate delay in execution.