Land acquisition for the Puzhuthivakkam MRTS station has
reached the final stages with an “award passed for acquisition of 8,462
sq. m. of land.”

The information was shared with
officials of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
(Cumta), the Chennai Corporation and other agencies at a meeting
organised at the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) on
Wednesday.

With Cumta stressing the need for a well
chalked-out strategy to speed up traffic and transportation projects,
the CMDA is planning to take measures to cope with legal proceedings and
quicken land acquisition.

The legal proceedings have
delayed the acquisition and alienation of over 6,550 sq. m. along the
stand-alone rail alignment and 3,038 sq. m. near the Adambakkam Station.
This is expected to delay the commissioning of a major transit hub in
St. Thomas Mount.

The work on the incomplete portions
of the 5-km stretch between Velachery and St. Thomas Mount is not
expected to resume as planned earlier. Though land acquisition resumed
last year, residents continued to protest because of the change in the
original alignment. The CMDA will be able to hand over the land to the
Railways only after the land acquisition is completed and the award is
passed.

Land acquisition for the proposed logistics
park to be set up in 117.25 acres of land in Karunakaracheri and
Annambedu and the second phase of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) also figured
prominently in the discussions on Wednesday. Land acquisition is
expected to begin once the State government sanction is received.

“Only
19 hectares of land remains to be acquired for the second phase of the
ORR. The remaining land has been acquired,” said an official associated
with land acquisition.

The second phase of the ORR,
which starts at Nemilicheri, crosses the Chennai-Bangalore railway line
and the Chennai Tiruvallur High Road. The road passes through villages,
including Mittanamallee, Morai, Attanthangal, Padiyanallur, Kandigai.
The work will gain momentum after the CMDA hands over the 19 hectares to
TNRDC. The ORR will connect Vandalur on NH45 in the south with Minjur
on the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti Road north of Chennai.

Cumta
will come up with more proposals including para-transit (feeder
services between different transport networks), Bus Rapid Transit System
(BRTS) and common ticketing if land acquisition hurdles to key traffic
and transportation projects are cleared.