Chennai, May 16 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government on Monday signed an MoU with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Chennai Port Trust, and the Indian Navy for building a double-tiered elevated expressway connecting the Chennai Port and Maduravoyal.

The MoU was signed in the state Secretariat in the presence of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

The proposed 20.565 km elevated expressway would be built at an outlay of Rs 5,855 crore.

As per plans, local vehicles will ply between Chennai Port and Koyambedu in the first tier and in the second tier, heavy vehicles will ply between Chennai Port and Maduravoyal.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 and the outlay was pegged at about Rs 1,655 crore.

At that time, the UPA government was at the Centre and the DMK was part of it.

However, when the AIADMK under J. Jayalalithaa came to power in the state, the project was stopped on environmental grounds.