Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Housing Board’s 443 crore-worth lands encroached

E-mail Print PDF

The New Indian Express                11.05.2013

Housing Board’s 443 crore-worth lands encroached

A total of 391.76 acres of Tamil Nadu Housing Board land worth Rs 442.99 crore has been encroached upon and needs to be cleared, according to the audit report on the annual accounts of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.

The report, which was tabled in the Assembly on Friday, said the highest value of land encroachments happened in Anna Nagar (Rs 178 crore), Besant Nagar (Rs 177.28 crore) and Mogappair (Rs 47.63 crore) in Chennai and in Coimbatore (Rs17.06 crore).

As per area, KK Nagar in Chennai tops the list with 229.60 acres of TNHB land being occupied by squatters followed by 82.64 acres of land in Coimbatore. Interestingly, the report also pointed out that 3,535 acres of land was acquired by TNHB but were not utilised. A great measure of these lands were in Anna Nagar, Besant Nagar, K K Nagar and Mogappair.

Surprisingly, the report also stated that a total of 3,528.79 acres of land was acquired but were yet to be handed over to Tamil Nadu Housing Board legally by the Revenue Department even though the awards were passed and payments were made. Meanwhile, the Housing Board was yet to be reimbursed Rs 11.37 crore that it spent for land acquisition after the acquisition was quashed by the court.

The report stated that a total of 4,975 housing units worth `334.06 crore remained unsold. These included 228 flats, 589 houses and 4,158 plots. The report also said commercial plots worth Rs 1,091 crore remained unsold. These included shops, schools, commercial plots and plots for public purposes. The report also highlighted irregularities in the consolidated report sent by the division and the Board’s annual accounts.

“As per consolidated reports sent by division, the value of unsold stock amounts to Rs 1,425 crore while Schedule 29 of the Board’s annual accounts lists the value of unsold stocks as Rs 189.11 crore,” it pointed out.