CHENNAI: A multistorey building constructed at a cost of Rs 36 crore to house the headquarters of the State forest department in Velachery has been lying vacant for a year without power and water connection. High-level sources said the reason is that neither the Forest Department nor the Public Works Department (PWD), which constructed the structure, got the plan for the building approved by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).
The forest department is now in a legal thicket as the CMDA has refused to give a completion certificate. “We have rejected the application and forwarded it to the housing and urban development department for further action,” CMDA sources told TNIE. It is also being alleged that the building was constructed on land belonging to the State highways department located on Velachery main road and there is an active proposal to expand the road.
Official records show Rs 36 crore of taxpayers’ money has gone into the construction of the 91,548 sqft, fourstorey building. A vigilance inquiry has also unearthed misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 5 crore to Rs 7 crore in the project. The Office of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, however, in its reply to an RTI query on April 21, said the construction of the headquarters was completed on April 26, 2021, but it was not occupied due to election model code of conduct.
All the questions pertaining to approvals were referred to the PWD. A superintendent engineer of the Chennai Corporation said the proposal to decongest and expand the Velachery road was pending for several years and it was even part of the CMDA master plan.
Three-member panel to study vigilance report
Sources said the building also lacks sewage connection and rainwater harvesting structures. TNIE visited the headquarters on Friday and saw rainwater pipelines protruding into the Guindy National Park through its compound wall. On allegation of misappropriation of funds, a preliminary inquiry report was submitted by Mita Banerjee, head of Vigilance and Wildlife Crime Bureau, in January.
A senior bureaucrat at the State Environment, Forests and Climate Department said the government has now formed a three-member committee to quantify the findings of the vigilance report. “One instance of corruption reported in the report is that a bill was raised for building the existing compound wall of Guindy National Park and money was withdrawn,” an official added.