Madras High Court has cleared the way for `495 crore Phase II extension of Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) between Velachery and St Thomas Mount after dismissing the petitions challenging the acquisition of land in the project.
While dismissing the writ petitions challenging land acquisition, justices N Paul Vasanthakumar and M Sathyanarayanan in their order gave a clean chit to the deviations from the original plan of the MRTS project stating that it was done after taking in the opinion of experts and the decision was not actuated by malafides.
As per the original plan, the construction of MRTS station at St Thomas Mount was to take place on the southern side of the existing suburban station. But when Chennai Metro project was conceived, a survey proposed to construct the station at the northern side. Later it was decided to integrate three modes of transport at St Thomas Mount railway station.
The judge said it is contended that on account of implementation of the composite corridor, integrated railway station would come into existence at St Thomas Mount Railway Station wherein MRTS, Chennai Metro Rail line and long distance rail lines would be at one place and the decision taken as per the Metro Transport Project (railways) cannot be faulted with.
Work remains on 1.3 km out of the total 5 km of the MRTS line km and the area belonging to the petitioners is 500 meters.