870 acres of land acquired by TNHB remain unutilised

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Housing Board has failed to put to use 870 acres of land that it had acquired over the years as it got embroiled in court cases and several other issues, according to state housing board officials.

Sources in state housing board said that of the total 870 acres of land, a total of 376.39 acres were struck  in court cases while nearly 69 acres were encroached.

Another 325 acres of land could not be put to use due to unavailable approach road. Similarly 98.72 acres of land could not be used as it lay scattered.

Interestingly, the issue of failure on the part of the state housing board was raised by an audit report. This resulted in the state government seeking a action taken report from TNHB to get back the land.

It is learnt from the report that during the land acquisition process, the ex-land owners filed cases in various courts and the cases are pending.

As a result, the lands which were acquired and the award amount passed could not be taken over and handed over to TNHB, said the report accessed by Express.

Similarly, in other cases, where the judgement were in favour of TNHB, the land could not be taken over as the lands were encroached by buildings raised in the lands.

“Under Section 47 of Land acquisition Act, action is being taken to evict the encroachment and take over the possession of the land,” stated the report.

The highest value of land encroachments happened in Anna Nagar (Rs 178 crore), Besant Nagar (Rs 177.28 crore) and Mogappair (Rs 47.63 crore) in Chennai and Coimbatore (Rs 17.06 crore).