Date:22/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/22/stories/2008082259630400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Demolition of houses begins for Villivakkam vehicular subway

Kannal Achuthan

Financial settlement for acquired land has been completed: Corporation

— Photo: S. Thanthoni

LAND ACQUIRED: Buildings on either side of Red Hills Road in Villivakkam demolished to make way for the road underbridge project on Wednesday.

Chennai: Earthmovers demolished houses on land acquired by the Chennai Corporation for the construction of the vehicular subway at Villivakkam on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A Corporation official said the land acquisition process was done by the Revenue Department and the financial settlement for the acquired land had been completed. About 60 houses on either side of the railway tracks at Villivakkam are to be demolished.

The total cost of the vehicular subway is estimated to be Rs. 13.39 crore. The subway will be constructed by infrastructure development firm Subhash Projects and Marketing Limited.

Workers have demolished 27 buildings on the southern side of the tracks. Some of the building owners, whose houses need to be only partly demolished, have taken up the work on their own using manual labour rather than heavy equipment to prevent damage to the rest of the building.

Buildings on the northern side would be razed down in the next few days. As the owners of seven buildings have filed a case in the Madras High Court, these constructions have not been touched for now.

Link road

A.V. Surendiran, convener of the joint action committee of welfare associations of north Villivakkam and Kolathur, said residents were happy that Southern Railway and Chennai Corporation had taken up the long-pending project. He said the residents were hoping to see the subway ready by December next year. The subway would do away with the need to wait for trains to pass at the LC 2 gate crossing. As many as 300 trains pass the crossing every day. Residents have requested that a temporary link road from the Metrowater compound near Rajaji Nagar I Street up to the LC 1 crossing be laid till the project is completed. “The link road would have to pass through railway land but it could serve as just a temporary facility,” Mr. Surendiran said.