CHENNAI: The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority’s decades-old plans to build an integrated housing project at New Manali Town area has been stopped after land records for five pieces of land went missing mysteriously.
This has put the agency and its officials in a fix over securing pattas for the land, as the original awards passed over five pieces of land – out of a total 291.91 acres – acquired for the project are reportedly missing.
Sources said the missing documents are essential for applying for patta in favour of CMDA. Officials in the agency are blaming the Tamil Nadu Housing Board, the agency that acquired the land, of failing to provide the five land records. The allegation has not amused housing board officials, who question why CMDA remained silent all these years.
The project was conceived in the early 1970s as a satellite city outside the core city limits. The housing board was to be the agency in charge of the satellite city, and acquired the 291.91 acres from private land owners through 18 awards. Later, the land that was acquired for this purpose was transferred to CMDA to develop Manali New Town.
Manali New Town was conceived as an Integrated Housing Project with provision for essential utilities and other social facilities in Edayanchavadi and Sadayankuppam villages. The layout was approved by CMDA on May 1984, with 4,236 residential plots, children’s park at 11 places, 17 institutional plots, 57 commercial plots, 714 readily built houses and plots for economic weaker sections. Initially, officials from the revenue department and CMDA were in a fix over the status of the land acquired for the project, after one of the land owners approached Madras High Court and complained of being denied compensation as he had a sale deed issued by CMDA under his name.