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The National Highways Authority of India has invited tenders for constructing the 116 km-long Chittoor-Thatchur greenfield expressway – NH 716 B – that will provide direct connectivity to Bengaluru and Chittoor and also the proposed Chennai–Kurnool economic corridor.
The project would be taken up on a hybrid annuity mode (HAM) under Bharatmala Pariyojana, as four packages in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh at a cost of around ₹3,100 crore.
The six-lane road with a 70 mt carriageway, would be designed for speeds of up to 100 km/hr and would run via 75 km of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh and 41 km of Tiruvallur district covering Pallipattu and Uthukottai taluks in Tamil Nadu. It will begin at 152 km-point of the proposed Bangalore-Chennai Expressway and end at Thatchur near Panapakkam on the Tirupati Road. Various locations in the chainage are Kumarajapet, Veera Kaverirajapuram, Pondavakkam and Kanigaiper.
Protest continues
With around 75% of the land required for the project being agricultural, farmers have been staging protests. Annually, the farmers produce an estimated 6,000 tonnes of rice, 3,500 tonnes of sugarcane and oil seeds and vegetables. Around 1,000 acres of rich agricultural lands that have at least two harvests a year and 221 acres of cattle grazing lands would be lost to the project. It will directly affect 15 lakes, 11 ponds and 47 irrigation channels.
“We supply most of the produce to Chennai and Tiruvallur. This will be lost if the project runs through our villages. Documents related to the project only talk about the economic advantage to ports and container movement. They do not even take into consideration the loss of livelihood due to agricultural activities taking a hit,” said Sambandam, a farmer.
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