Metro Rail to change alignment, railway station to be built outside Pachaiyappa’s college

CMRL to get only 37 cents of college land instead of proposed 3.5 acres

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Chennai Metro Rail is likely to change the realignment of the proposed station in Pachaiyappa’s College campus after a series of protests by University teachers and green activists.

Pachiayappa’s Trust chairman M K Loganathan told Express on Friday that after a series of negotiations held with metro rail authorities and the chief secretary recently it was agreed that the underground railway station will not be built in the college premises but on the adjacent road.

“It will be built outside the campus. The college will be losing only 37 cents of land. Although there  is no compensation involved but metro rail is paying Rs 10 crore as a goodwill gesture to the college,” it was disclosed by Loganathan.

Interestingly, since the work will be carried on the road, the college will be providing one acre of land for traffic diversion. “This land will be given back to the college once the work is completed,” said Loganathan.

Loganathan said the agreement has been accepted in principle. “We received the details about the alignment and measurement yesterday,” he added.

Association of University president and president of Pachaiyappa Reserve Dr Va Mu Se Andavar told Express that the decision to change the alignment was taken 15 days ago. “We thank the media for giving us moral support,” he said.

“The chief minister honoured the institution by presiding the 150th year celebration of our college. She also donated Rs 25 lakh for the benefit of educational development of poor students and the earlier trustees of Pachyiappa’s trust board have done injustice to the institution by giving their acceptance to the metro rail authorities to acquire the land,” he said.

Meanwhile Metro rail authorities are tightlipped over the change in alignment. “We have yet to get any official communication in this matter,” said the spokesman of Metro Rail.

M B Nirmal, the founder and chairman of Exnora International, who is the alumni of the college and was in the forefront to save the trees in the campus, said the move will save trees and rare species of plants with medicinal value, which serves as a carbon sink and green lungs of this area