A top official of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) denied any deviation from the approved alignment for the Port-Maduravoyal elevated corridor in Chennai.
 
 NHAI's comments comes after the state government asked the authority to stop work on the elevated corridor on March 29 as construction had deviated from the original plan. The 19 km road will reduce the travel time of container traffic between the port and Maduravoyal and Sriperumbudur.   
 
 Chief engineer of the Tamil Nadu water resources department HJ Nanjan said the alignment had deviated into the Cooum river and pillars were constructed on the waterway at different points. 
 
 The NHAI official said the authority was taking all possible steps to sort out the problem. The pillars will be constructed only along the Coovum river banks and it touches the river only where the elevated structure crosses the river banks, he added.
 
 The public works department required NHAI to get permission from different urban bodies at every stage of work. A senior PWD official said a meeting of the heads of different departments was held when the project was proposed.