The much-awaited road infrastructure improvement project in the Orgadam and Sriperumbudur industrial clusters has taken off. The Tamil Nadu government has signed the agreement for the proposed project and has awarded the contracts to three companies — Roman Tarmat, NAPC and SDC-PKM joint venture.

After some delays due to contractors failing to execute the agreement and later legal hurdles, the government has now finalised the contractors and signed the agreement. The state government had sanctioned Rs 300 crore for widening of roads, connecting Sriperumbudur and Oragadam areas with national highways.

The 58-km road improvement work has been split into four packages and Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Devel-opment Company has awarded the project to three companies. The total value of the four packages is about Rs 215 crore.

"We have signed the agreement with the companies and the work has already commenced," M Thiagarajan, executive director, Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Develo-pment Corporation told Financial Chronicle.

Work has begun for acquiring land and expanding the width of the roads. About Rs 80 crore has been earmarked for land acquisitions, which will be completed in one or two months. The road improvement works will be taken up on four stretches: Singaperumalkoil-Oraga-dam, Oragadam -Wallajabad, Vandalur-Oragadam and Oragadam-Sriperumbudur.

Mumbai-headquartered infrastructure firm Roman Tarmat has bagged orders worth Rs 107 crore for widening - Singaperu-malkoil-Oraga-dam and Oragadam –Wallajabad. NAPC has bagged the order for widening the Vandalur-Oragadam stretch, while SDC-PKM joint venture will take up the Rs 60 crore widening work for Oragadam- Sriperumbudur stretch. All the projects are expected to be completed by September 2009.