A source privy to the project said the highways department was in need of 494 cents of corporation land at CMC Colony to construct a loop as a part of the flyover project. “At least 737 families are residing on the land that is to be acquired by the highways department. The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) had decided to accommodate about 492 families at a housing unit that is proposed to construct at the colony itself and the remaining families in other housing units.”
It is to be noted that whenever the TNSCB reconstructs its housing units, it would provide a single-time shifting charge of Rs 8,000 per family for temporary relocation. “To make the relocation easy for the residents, who would otherwise have to hunt for rental houses, the highways department has been constructing temporary shelters for them on the corporation land at Pullukadu.
While 247 families would be accommodated there, the remaining families had agreed to stay with their relatives until the completion of the housing unit,” the source said.
Explaining that about 70% families had already vacated their houses, the source said the corporation officials visited the colony on Thursday to advise the remaining families to vacate their houses at the earliest, as the flyover work had come to a halt because of the delay in land acquisition. “The residents, however, staged a protest stating some of them were left out from the survey. The officials held talks with them and left the area.”
Jothi, a resident of CMC Colony, said 55 families that were in need of temporary shelters were left out from the survey. “The officials had informed us that they would be visiting the colony only to hold talks with us. But on Thursday morning, they removed the doors of a house and asked us to vacate immediately. That’s why we staged the sit-in.”
Another resident said they were ready to vacate immediately if all the families were provided alternative accommodation. “In that case, we are ready to extend 100% cooperation to the officials.”