CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State Public Works Department to depute one of its senior officers to appear in court and hold discussions on the construction of two law colleges, one in Tiruvallur district and the other in Kanchipuram district.
The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh gave the direction on Tuesday, while passing further interim orders on a batch of writ petitions filed by students and others, for and against the shifting of the Dr Ambedkar Government Law College from NSC Bose Road in Esplande to the outskirts of the city.
Land has been earmarked at Pattarai, Perumbudur village in Tiruvallur district and in Pudupakkam village in Tiruporur taluk in Kanchipuram district. The budgeted estimate has been set at `115 crore for the construction of the two colleges with hostel and other facilities. By a communication dated February 18 this year, the Director of Legal Studies has requested the PWD to send revised estimates for the works to be carried out in the first instance on the basis of the current rates.
When the matter came up on Tuesday, the bench was informed that there was no complication with regard to availability of land but there were some hurdles for the allotment of the `115 crore for the two colleges. The government may not be able to spend the amount in one lump sum, and a proposal to plan the whole exercise from the beginning is afoot.
In response, the bench felt that planning the whole exercise again is unnecessary but a plan of construction has to be made. Since the construction will take time, it can be done in phases. For this, the presence of a senior officer from the PWD is necessary to discuss this issue, the bench said and posted the matter for March 9 for further hearing.