Thousands of houses and commercial establishments along 132 roads and 35 highways are likely to be demolished for the ambitious road widening project in the city. Some of them include Santhome High Road and Kaliammankoil Street.
Owing to rising traffic congestion, the Greater Chennai Corporation has sent a proposal to the government on widening 14 roads in the first phase. Land plan schedule has been prepared for such roads. Work on preparation of land plan schedule for another 10 roads, including Royapettah High Road, is under way. The government is likely to take a decision on compensation for affected residents through issuance of certificate for Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) or acquisition of land by private negotiation.
Following the preparation of land plan schedule for the 14 roads, the Corporation has estimated the damage likely to be caused to houses and commercial establishments along each of the roads. For example, around 300 property owners will lose land along Kaliammankoil Street. The width of the road will increase to 27 metre after acquisition of 29,000 sq m along the stretch. The existing width of the road ranges from 8 metre to 18 metre. A total of 1.75 lakh sq m of land will be acquired from residents along the 14 roads in the first phase. A total of 5,900 sq m of land along Paper Mills Road will be acquired to widen it to 18 metre from the existing 12-14 metre.
Sembium - Red Hills Road will get 9,500 sq m of land for a proposed width of 18 metre. Land parcels measuring 6,700 sq m will be acquired for a 24-metre wide Nelson Manickam Road. A total of 29,000 sq m will be acquired for widening of Arcot Road from 22 metre to 30.5 metre. Perambur Barracks Road will get 13,300 sq m of land for increasing the width from 11 to 24 metre. Strahans Road will be widened from 12 metre to 24 metre after acquisition of 6,600 sq m land. At least 24,000 sq m of land along Sardar Patel Road will be acquired for increasing the width from 21 metre to 30.5 metre. The Chennai Corporation requires 11,500 sq m of land along Santhome High Road to increase the width from 15 metre to 24 metre. Residents and government departments along Dr. Muthulakshmi Salai will lose 23,500 sq m of land for the proposed width of 30.5 metre.
As roads such as Kalki Krishnamurthy Salai are already wide, the stretch requires just 6,700 sq m.
A total of 8,500 sq m of land along Kodambakkam Road, Mosque Street and Jayaram Street would be acquired for widening the stretches to 18 metre.
The Corporation is also classifying land owners into groups that are set to lose less than 10 per cent of the land and those likely to lose more than 50 per cent of their land to assess the impact on residents’ livelihood. “Those who lose 10 per cent of the land many actually gain considerably owing to the rise in the market value of their land after the widening,” said an official.
