Chennai–Tirupati Travel to Get Faster with New Highway Link by September

Motorists bound for Tirupati will soon save 30-45 minutes of drive on account of the nearing completion of the four-lane 18-km greenfield highway from Thiruninravur to Tiruvallur. Primarily, the project is nearing the finish line with NHAI estimating completion in September, with 85% of the work done.

The new stretch will connect the Tiruvallur Bypass at Thirupachur with the Veppampattu Bypass at Thiruninravur on the Chennai-Tirupati Highway (CTH), running through Thaneerkulam, Thozhur, and Sevvapet. Designed as an access-controlled, fully fenced road with service lanes on each side, this will allow traffic to bypass two of the main bottlenecks of CTH-Tiruvallur town and the narrow two-lane Thiruninravur-Tiruvallur stretch.

As for now, 15 km of the 18-km stretch is in place. When completed, this will be part of the 62 km Thiruninravur-Tirupati corridor being upgraded to a four-lane access-controlled route under a ₹304 crore project initiated in 2022.

About a parallel ₹750 crore project is enhancing the 44 km section from Tiruvallur to the Tamil Nadu-Andhra border section of the CTH. Presently, about 12% of this work has been completed. Service roads on either side will also be constructed. The Thiruninravur-Tiruvallur bypass section is also being future-proofed for expansion to six lanes without any additional land acquisition.

At present, the Chennai–Tirupati Highway has four lanes from Padi-Korattur to Thiruninravur, but the state plans to widen this 22-km stretch to six lanes, have stalled on account of land acquisition issues. Commuters are complaining that heavy traffic, along with speed breakers at regular intervals of 200 m and congestion on the route from Avadi, Ambattur, Pattabiram to Thiruninravur, makes even the 35 km stretch from Padi to Tiruvallur take nearly two hours.

“From Korattur to Tiruvallur, it takes almost two hours because of traffic and speed breakers almost every 200 metres. An elevated corridor from Padi to Thiruninravur will make a big difference,” said S. Ramesh Varadhan, a Korattur resident.

With the opening of the greenfield link, travel will be easier and faster from Chennai to Tirupati, a major religious and tourist route, thereby giving relief to thousands of daily commuters and pilgrims.