NHAI might realign ECR road expansion project in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has told the National Green Tribunal that it might consider realigning East Coast Road (ECR) road expansion work at Odaiyur near Kuvathur.

The tribunal had earlier, temporarily, barred the central agency from going ahead with the road widening project (two-lane to four-lane between Mamallapuram and Puducherry) at the disputed area as a lagoon, a no-activist zone, was located on the western side of the existing road.

The Odiyur lagoon is a tidally-influenced waterbody, with the High Tide Line (HTL) marked up to the existing ECR road. K Saravanan, a member of the local fishing community, had filed a case against this with NGT soon after road-widening work began in January.