After a long period, widening of the 22 km stretch of the Chennai-Tirupati High (CTH) Road (Chennai-Tirutani-Renigunta Road) is witnessing some progress.
Sources in the State Highways Department said a review meeting was conducted recently and two tahsildars were asked to finalise the verification of property ownership along the road and a separate land acquisition tahsildar for the project could also be appointed.
Funds already granted
“The Revenue Department plays a major role in identification of owners of the properties and disbursement of compensation. The government has already granted ₹168 crore for the project,” said an official.
Minister K. Pandiarajan, who represents the Avadi constituency, said that he would ensure that the widening work is speeded up. “It had been put on hold for want of revenue staff since there are hundreds of parcels of land in that stretch,” he said.
At present, the stretch running through 14 revenue villages — Thiruninravur, Nemilichery, Nadukuthakai, Thandurai, Sekkadu, Vilinjiampakkam, Paruthipattu, Thirumullavoyal, Padi, Mogappair, Mannurpet, Korattur, Ambattur and Oragadam — is a four-lane road that has been paved from end-to-end. It was proposed in 2013 that it would be made into a six-lane facility when the National Highways Authority of India gave up the idea of widening it due to thick urbanisation and handed over the road to the State Highways.
19.71 ha required
A total of 19.71 hectares is required and these run through 1,422 survey numbers that are owned by 2,898 persons. “Each of these has to be physically verified, marked and documents too verified before we can go to the next stage of publishing in newspapers and seeking the opinion of the owners. This we expect to get over in a couple of months time,” explained another official.
Consumer activist T. Sadagopan said that it has been over six months since markings were made on buildings. “Nobody has received any notice. The road is the lifeline for lakhs of people living in this area that also has hundreds of industries. The work was announced by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2013. Till date not much has progressed”.
