The proposed Stage 4 of the Chennai Metro Rail is facing stiff opposition from residents and private institutions as the planned corridors will need acquiring of private land from those residing there for decades.
Nearly 200 families and home-owners living in the highly-populated and central neighbourhood of T Nagar in Chennai are up in arms against the land acquisition for the proposed Kodambakkam Metro line and station, and parents and alumni of a private school in Nungambakkam are also protesting the use of their school’s land for the proposed Sterling Road Metro station.
On November 30, members of the Vivekananda Residents Welfare Association and the Civic Exnora of North T Nagar wrote a letter to the Prime Minister recording their protest against the land acquisition for the Kodambakkam metro line. Parts of Thiyagaraya Gramani street, Gangai Amman Koil Street, Vivekananda street and Ramakrishna street are proposed to be acquired for the construction of the metro line, and that will displace several families who have been settled there for generations, the letter stated.
“Two hundred houses are involved. Most of the residents are living here for more than two generations. Their kids are continuing their studies in schools and colleges nearby. On close scrutiny, we find that more than 130 Senior Citizens are getting affected and from the date they saw the Notice appeared in the local dailies during the first week of November 2018, they are under severe mental stress and agony,” (sic) the letter added.
The residents’ association further requested the authorities use up vacant space on the western side of the metro, near the suburban railway station, leaving the houses on the streets intact.
While T Nagar is battling the building of the Kodambakkam Metro station, a little further away, parents and alumni of the Good Shepherd Convent Girls’ school in Nungambakkam are protesting against the use of 3000 square metres of their campus to set up the Sterling Road metro station.
Picture credits: Sathish Balthasar Thumma/Facebook
“The proposed plan for the metro would take away the entire playground and the junior block from classes one to five, leaving us with just a concrete building. The school management had filed a writ petition with the high court regarding this and had even furnished alternate plans for the Metro in order to retain the nearly 100-year-old school. However, in a recent hearing, these new plans were rejected by the court. Right now, we are not protesting because the issue is sub judice. But we will take it up again in time,” Kavitha whose daughter is in Class 11 in the school told TNM.
Corridor 3 of the CMRL stretches 46 kms from Siruseri to Madhavaram. Several tests including soil have been done by the CMRL ahead of the project.