Officials of the MRTS extension project have begun conducting soil tests on the property of several litigants whose land is being acquired for the final 500-metre stretch of Velachery-St Thomas Mount MRTS project. Several litigants whose premises fall in the way of the new project have opposed this move as they are yet to receive any compensation.
State government agencies claim that the acquisition process is almost complete. Residents, meanwhile, have said that it has been nine months since the Madras high court ruled on releasing due compensation to them, but they have not received any payout.
Revathy, a litigant in the project, said that last Monday some officials entered her house to conduct soil tests. “They were railway officials and carried on with their work despite my objections,” she told that She has now planned to approach the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in this regard.
A senior government official dealing with the land acquisition project told TOI that the tests may have been conducted by CMRL, as one corridor was being planned above the MRTS section. But he denied any knowledge about the tests being conducted without giving notice to the residents.
Venkateshwaran, another resident who is involved in the litigation, said that this move was nothing but an intimidatory tactic .
A state government official said that the compensation payment will be made within two weeks.
However,has accessed documents which show that the government is also mulling moving the Supreme Court against the highcourt order despite a legal opinion given to the contrary by an additional advocate general.
Though the official claimed that the acquisition process is over, there are still several issues raised by residents that have not been addressed. For instance, there is a dispute on the price to be paid for properties on Adambakkam main road and for those a few metres away from the road. The disparity is around ₹750 per square feet.
Another issue is about an interim compensation of ₹20 crore that is lying in the account of the Tambaram court. This amount has been released by the government initially, but the award was quashed in 2015.
Residents said there were bureaucratic delays in getting the compensation amount released as it required signatures from key government officials.