A 500-metre gap is what stands between MRTS, St. Thomas Mount

Southern Railway disheartened by delay in land acquisition by Kancheepuram Collectorate

CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, 16/06/2016: Slow progress on the construction of extended railway line between Velachery and St Thomas Mount in Chennai._Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

The extension of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) from Velachery railway station to St. Thomas Mount station has been stalled by delay in land acquisition.

A popular public transport option for residents of the city, the MRTS was proposed to be extended to St. Thomas Mount by the Southern Railway. At present, electrical multiple unit (EMU) services are being operated from Velachery to Chennai Beach.

The Southern Railway officials are disheartened by the delay in administrative procedures involved in acquiring land by the Kancheepuram Collectorate for linking the last portion of only 500 metres of the elevated stretch with the multi-modal railway station coming up at St. Thomas Mount.

A senior official of Southern Railway said they had completed building elevated tracks on a major portion of the five-km stretch and only half-a-km stretch remained to be constructed. But the extension work had already been delayed by several years and still remained incomplete because of slow progress in acquiring land from around 60 landowners, he said.

HC verdict

The extension project was expected to be back on track after the Madras High Court gave the go-ahead in April 2014 by enhancing the compensation to the landowners. However, the land acquisition was yet to be completed though the Southern Railway was ready to make the payments, sources said.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the nodal agency for the MRTS project, had also requested the Kancheepuram Collector to speed up land acquisition, but nothing seemed to be moving in this regard, railway officials said. All that they had been told was that the land acquisition file was ‘pending’ with the Commissioner for Land Acquisition.

Any further delay in executing the project would lead to shooting up of the project cost, officials note.

When asked, Kancheepuram District Collector R. Gajalakshmi said the eviction would begin soon. Special Tahsildar (Land Aquisition) was in the process of submitting his report, following which the Revenue Divisional Officer would pass an order, she said.