Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) will upgrade damaged bus routes and interior roads across all 15 zones at an estimated cost of ₹150 crore.The civic body has prepared detailed project reports (DPRs) for upgrading 45.13km of 66 damaged bus route roads and 114.87km of 714 interior roads, together covering 160km and 780 roads.The DPRs, estimated at ₹150 crore, have been sent to the state govt for administrative approval. The Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDCO) is currently scrutinising the estimates and taking steps to grant approval.Once approval is secured, tenders will be floated and the work will be taken up before the northeast monsoon, GCC commmissioner G S Sameeran said.The GCC maintains 488 bus route roads covering 418.5km and 35,978 interior roads covering 5,654km. Road laying and improvement, footpath construction, and junction improvement work are undertaken through the corporation’s bus route roads department.The first phase of relaying will involve key subways, including the Nelson Manickam Road and Duraisamy Subways in Nungambakkam and T Nagar. Besides this, roads in low-lying areas such as Pulianthope, Velachery and Vyasarpadi will also be improved. Officials said they will also use cold-mix to fix roads immediately in places where large relaying won’t be possible due to monsoon.Chief minister C Joseph Vijay, in the assembly, had announced a ₹300 crore allocation to fix a total of 360km of roads. The second phase will be taken up after the monsoon, an official said.By next year, the state highways department is set to take over the bus route roads, and about ₹1,000 crore has been allotted for overall maintenance.
