Could Rs 495 crore Phase II MRTS Extn be completed before December 2016?

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Could the work to complete the Rs 495 crore Phase II extension of Mass
Rapid Transit System (MRTS) between Velachery and St Thomas Mount be
completed before December 2016?

While the project has hit a roadblock again and this time over the
compensation issue, officials have set a deadline of December 2016 to
get the project ready by then.

But this looks highly improbable as there are as many as 18 cases
being filed in Madras High Court to fix the compensation under the new
land acquisition act. Surprisingly, the Housing and Urban Development
department has only a few months ago engaged an advocate general to
clear the cases.

The project has been pending over acquisition of 500 metres of land.
Interestingly, there was much hope last year immediately after the
Madras High Court Madras High Court cleared the way for Rs 495 crore
Phase II extension of Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) between
Velachery and St Thomas Mount after dismissing the petitions
challenging the acquisition of land and deviation in the project.

But then, there has not been enough progress with the beneficiaries
knocking at the doors of the court to get compensation as per the new
land acquisition act.



It is learnt that a total of 28 beneficiaries have been identified and
a CMDA official stated that the work would resume after the
beneficiaries, who had approached the High Court against the
acquisition of 500 metres of land is compensated.

The earlier compensation was based on old land acquisition act and now
the compensation is being reviewed under the new act which replaced
the 119-year-old obsolete legislation.

The proposed alignment and extension of Phase-II took place in the
year 2008 and till now 3.7 km out of the 5 km stretch of MRTS line has
been completed.

The project envisages development of the elevated MRTS on single
pillars along the median of the Inner Ring Road (IRR) from MBL Road to
St Thomas Road for a distance of about 5 km.

The state government is sharing the 33 per cent of cost while 67 per
cent is shared by Union government. The project envisages construction
of two intermediate stations Puzhuthivakkam and Adambakkam