Vellore Bypass: Land Acquisition Complete for ₹1,047-Crore Project
National Highways completes land acquisition for the ₹1,047-crore Vellore Town Bypass Road, a 20.5 km four-lane stretch aimed at decongesting Katpadi.
The National Highways authority has completed land acquisition for the ₹1,047-crore Green Field Vellore Town Bypass Road, covering 123 hectares across 13 farming villages. The 20.5-kilometre, four-lane stretch will connect Latteri village near Katpadi with Nelvoy village near the Christian Medical College campus on the outskirts of Vellore Corporation.
Officials said the bypass will allow heavy vehicles from Andhra Pradesh to bypass Katpadi entirely and head directly towards Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram districts. Currently, NH 75 in Katpadi handles 5,000–7,000 lorries and trucks daily, many of them south-bound goods carriers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, causing significant congestion.
The project was first aligned in 2017 and received central approval in 2023 at an estimated cost of ₹752 crore. However, delays in land acquisition and the West Asia conflict pushed the cost to the current ₹1,047 crore, requiring fresh approval from the Union Road Transport Ministry's Delegated Investment Board.
Of the total acquired land, 92 hectares are private holdings, and compensation to landowners is being settled. The bypass will feature a 15-metre carriageway, a 1.2-metre median, footpaths, LED streetlights, and high-mast lamps. It will be access-controlled with no vehicular crossings, allowing uninterrupted travel.
The design includes two grade separators at Latteri, two rail overbridges, two high-level bridges across the Palar and Kuttaru rivers, and five vehicular subways. Six minor bridges and 18 culverts will manage monsoon rainwater. Safety features include road studs, reflectors, signages, blinkers, and CCTV cameras.
Travel time between Latteri and Nelvoy is expected to drop from two hours to about 20 minutes once the road opens. In the State Assembly, Public Works Minister Aadhav Arjuna confirmed that land acquisition is complete and noted that a detailed project report and feasibility study will examine an elevated corridor between Katpadi railway station and the Old Bridge across the Palar River, a three-kilometre stretch.