A 11-ground area, worth `10 crore in the Ambattur-Athipattu revenue
village, also known as Jaswant Nagar, was handed over to the Chennai
Corporation by Revenue Department officials after removal of 
40-year-old encroachment.

Seven persons had allegedly built two
sheds and a compound wall around the area and a grill gate. They had
claimed that the land was handed down to them by their ancestors,
Revenue department officials said.

“They did not vacate even after
the department sent them notices. They filed a case in the Madras High
Court and only now the judgment has come. They obtained a stay for one
part of the land, about one and a half cents, and have given the rest of
the land to us which we have taken up for development work,” said a
revenue department official.

Officials sources said that the land
might be turned into a park or a children’s play area.  Similarly,
another area of land near Korattur, measuring about 29 grounds had been
retrieved by the Revenue Department recently.

“A private school
had built a compound wall around the area. So we demolished the wall and
reclaimed the land. We are in the process of handing it over to the
Corporation,” said the official.

Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan said that the Corporation was currently in the process of reclaiming encroached areas.

“This
is an ongoing process. Once the land is taken back by the Revenue
Department, we will discuss the matter with them and put the land to
some useful public purpose,” he said.

After the expansion of the
city limits, the Chennai Corporation is on a land retrieval drive.   A
wide category of encroached lands, including the ones near dried up lake
beds —what the revenue officials call the odai poromboke land — are
being cleared of encroachments and reclaimed by the Corporation for
planning and development.