After a long legal battle, the land on which Picnic Hotel was located is now back in the possession of Chennai Corporation. The civic body handed over the land, measuring nearly 14 grounds and located close to the Ripon Buildings, for the Metro Rail project.
On Friday, the hotel management vacated the 13 grounds and 2,218 sq.ft of land on completion of the deadline set by the Supreme Court for it to hand over the possession.
Soon after the civic body took over the site, formalities were completed for handing over the land to Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL). The land would be used for construction of a portion of the underground Chennai Central Metro station.
Sources in the CMRL said the hotel building would be demolished and the land used for entry and exit gates and ventilators of the station.
A portion of a diaphragm wall meant for underground drilling and a temporary office would also come up at the spot.
The Chennai Central Metro station would be the starting point for Corridor-II of the project connecting to St.Thomas Mount. It would also be one of the stations in Corridor-I – Washermenpet to Airport.
The station would come up under the parking area of Chennai Central station. The location of the Metro station would help integrate it with the Chennai Central Railway Station, Moore Market Complex from where suburban EMUs are operated and the Park Station.
Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan said the land had been taken over by the civic body after a long legal battle. The land, which forms a portion of the total 57 grounds on which Victoria Public Hall stands, belonged to the Revenue Department and had been entrusted to the Municipal Commissioner of Madras in 1865.
The land was then leased out to the Trustees of Town Hall from April 1886 for 99 years for construction of the Victoria Public Hall.
Though the lease expired in April 1985, the hotel had obtained a sub-lease till 2028 from the original trustees. It did not pay any rent to the Corporation but only to the trust. The hotel, which had a total built up area of 7,596 sq. mt., had five floors.
