With Chennai Metro Rail Limited beginning to acquire the small portions of private land required for the project, roadblocks seem to be emerging due to disputes over the compensation package.
Members of the Alandur Railway Station Road Residents' Welfare Association on Wednesday threatened to launch a protest, accusing the CMRL of going back on its promise to give a satisfactory compensation package.
Among the first batch of property owners to get eviction notices, they allege that though a mutually favourable rate was reached through private negotiations, the CMRL has suddenly decided to invoke the Land Acquisition Act to acquire their properties at a rate that is just 10 per cent of the market value.
Producing the letter that owners of 29 buildings on Railway Station Road signed and submitted to the CMRL following a meeting on January 27 this year, Bharathi Kumar, president of the association, said, “the CMRL offered a rate of Rs.3,745 per sq. feet. We initially asked for more, but settled for the amount and conveyed our approval in writing. There was no communication for a few months and we suddenly receive notices stating that we will have to vacate the property within 15 days and settle for a compensation of Rs.900 per sq. feet.”
Terming CMRL's decision to invoke the Land Acquisition Act as unjust, Ms. Bharathi Kumar said, “We are not against the metro rail project. We are willing to give our land, but the compensation amount is unbelievably low. We are being cheated.”
Residents also produced documents showing that a property was registered on the same road at Rs.3,200 per sq. feet in 2008, much before the metro rail alignment was even announced, which would have driven up land prices further.
In order to avoid such disputes, CMRL had appointed a consultant during the initial stages of the project to arrive at a fair settlement for acquiring land. Sources in CMRL say that the offer of Rs.3,745 is based on the “advised price.”
However, now that the Land Acquisition Act has been invoked, CMRL Managing Director K.Rajaraman said that it was up to the State government to fix the compensation amount. “Alandur comes under the Kancheepuram Collector and he is the competent authority. CMRL has no power whatsoever to decide the price. Besides, residents can also approach the court under Section 18 of the Act if they are unhappy with the compensation.”
On why the Land Acquisition Act was invoked after the negotiations, he said that there was ambiguity on who actually had the title to the land in many places in Chennai. “After compensation is paid, another person could surface claiming to be the owner. On the contrary, when the government acquires the land, it comes into its absolute possession.”
Documents in possession of The Hindu show that a majority of the 29 properties have single owners and there are no disputes over the title.
The Metro Rail Corridor-II (Chennai Central – St.Thomas Mount) crosses the Kathipara junction on GST Road and on its fag end the corridor runs along the Railway Station Road till the St.Thomas Mount station. The site would eventually serve as an inter-modal hub where the suburban EMU network integrates with the MRTS and the metro rail.
