CHENNAI: There was some tension in Nandambakkam on Friday morning after the occupants of an illegal building on Butt Road blocked traffic for over an hour, protesting against the building being demolished. They dispersed after they were shown the relevant court order.

Around 9.30 am, officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and 80 policemen, including 30 armed reserve police personnel, began work on demolishing the structure. However, the building's occupants and their supporters came out and asked the authorities to provide them with sufficient evidence for demolishing the structure, saying the Madras high court had stayed a move to demolish the building.

The NHAI authorities then presented a copy of Thursday's order of the Madras high court that quashed the case against the demolition. The crowd then dispersed and traffic along Butt Road, one of the busiest stretches connecting the western suburbs to the city, slowly returned to normal.

Constructed in 1997, the illegal building that had been rented out to commercial establishments, had come up on nearly 3,000 sq ft of land belonging to the Ministry of Defence. When the NHAI acquired the land from the Defence Ministry to expand the road, which connects Guindy with Poonamalle, the illegal occupants of the building filed a suit in the Madras high court and got a stay against the demolition.