Several railway projects in the Chennai division are suffering from delays because of apathy on the part of the State government in acquiring land and removing encroachments.
The Southern Railway has been executing ambitious projects like the doubling of the north section, extension of the the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), and construction of additional tracks for operating dedicated suburban lines to run more trains. However, some of these projects remain half done or are yet to take off because of inadequate cooperation by concerned officials in the State government towards completing the necessary land acquisition for taking up the track works, railway officials said.
Acquisition hurdle
A senior official of the Southern Railway said that two main projects, including the construction of the third and fourth lines from Chennai Beach to Korukkupet and extension of the MRTS from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount railway stations, have been delayed by several months due to lack of cooperation by the revenue officials of the State government in speeding up the acquisition of land and removal of encroachments at a few stretches.
The railway officer said the Chennai Beach to Korukkupet third line project, supposed to be developed at a cost of ₹142 crore, could not be taken up because of the delay in acquiring a small parcel of land by the Chennai Collectorate near the Washermenpet railway station and transferring of land by the Chennai Port Trust.
Compensation issue
The railway officials also blame the city traffic police for the delay in implementing traffic diversion in ‘3R Bridge’ in Royapuram where more than ₹3 crore has been spent to pave a new road by the railway department to provide an alternate route to road users.
Similarly, in the Chennai Beach to Attippattu fourth line project involving ₹120 crore, the Attippattu to Korukkupet line at a cost of ₹92 crore could not make any progress, as there was delay in acquisition of 1.7 hectares of land by the Thiruvallur Collector (pending since 2013) and non-removal of encroachments near Tiruvottiyur railway yard.
“The Southern Railway is concerned about the MRTS Phase 2 Extension from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount, which has been delayed by several years due to the problem in acquiring land from a section of residents,” an official points out.
Even after the railway depositing the necessary compensation amount as per the New Land Acquisition Act 2013 to the Kancheepuram Collector, the ₹495-crore project hangs in the balance, officials note.
The extension project having a length of five km was launched in 2008 and was scheduled to be completed by 2010.
A senior official of the City Traffic Police in response to the delay in implementing the traffic diversion on ‘3R Bridge’ said traffic diversion would be implemented soon. A senior revenue official of Kancheepuram district, when asked about the delay in land acquisition for MRTS work, said: “With the land acquisition facing stiff opposition, the project is getting delayed. Once the court hurdles are cleared, we would go ahead with the land acquisition process,” said a senior revenue official from Kancheepuram.
Promise not kept
S. Ekambaram, who is one of the affected persons in the land acquisition for the MRTS project, said that the revenue officials reneged on their promise in terms of compensation. Initially, a sum of ₹2,283 per sq.ft. was agreed upon. But the amount was revised by the revenue officials to ₹1,983 per sq.ft.
The land owners are seeking revised compensation under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The extension of the MRTS stretch was scheduled to be completed by December 2016, but got delayed due to the indifferent attitude of the officials, residents said.
(With inputs from T. Madhavan)
