S. Viswanathan, chairperson of the Chennai Port Authority and J.P. Irene Cynthia, managing director of Kamarajar Port Limited addressed the media on Friday.
| Photo Credit: RAGHUNATHAN SR
About 25-27 % of the work has been completed on the 21-km double-tier Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated corridor and it will be ready by November 2027, S. Viswanathan, chairperson of the Chennai Port Authority said.
Though the project was slated for completion in December 2024, it has been riddled with delays.
While addressing the media, Mr. Viswanathan said, when the monsoon season sets in, there is an advisory of the Water Resources Department to slow down the work so that the local public are not affected. Hence, for a couple of months during this period, the work is slightly affected. Also, the work is carried out amidst challenges such as restrictions in movement of trucks during the day due to traffic. However, Mr. Viswanathan said, the work has picked up pace now and been going on well without any issue.
“This corridor will definitely serve the purpose because at Chennai Port, the cargo volume is increasing. The efficiency of the port will significantly go up [when this project becomes a reality],” he added.
Talking about the effect of the vessel traffic and cargo volume due to the war in West Asia, he said, there has been a bit of an impact for some of the commodities. J.P. Irene Cynthia, managing director of Kamarajar Port Limited said, the war in West Asia is affecting the automobile export; nearly 40% of the automobile export goes from Kamarajar Port to gulf countries. “[This export] is not going now. Hence, we have provided additional space for storage. We are supporting them for transshipment. We have done a waiver of demurrage. In other cargo, we are not seeing much impact,” she added.
A total of 107 million metric tonnes of cargo was handled by Chennai Port and Kamarajar Port together in the financial year 2025-26 exceeding the throughput of 103.37 million metric tonnes the previous year. Also, both ports together recorded a combined income from operations surpassing ₹2,400 crore in the financial year 2025-26.
Mr. Viswanathan noted that a car is exported every 80 seconds from Chennai and Kamarajar Ports.
He noted that projects, including upgradation and mechanisation of coastal berths through PPP and widening and strengthening of the Jawahar Dock entrance and multilevel car park through PPP has been planned. Ms. Cynthia said, at Kamarajar Port, projects like new bulk terminal and upgradation of general cargo berth will be implemented in future.
Published – May 23, 2026 05:30 am IST
