The State Highways Department started its drive to acquire land at Porur junction on Monday July 12, 2011 to facilitate speedy construction of a flyover.
According to officials, 10 of the 63 buildings, mostly used for commercial purposes, were demolished on the Poonamallee and Karambakkam sides of the flyover on Monday. Once the demolition was completed this week, more space would be available to continue work on the project.
Of the total 8,900 sq.m. land required for the project, the demolition process has been sanctioned for structures on nearly 4,500 sq.m. of land. Acquisition of the remaining portion would be made once the issues pertaining to ownership of the lands classified as ‘gramanatham' are sorted out.
Officials said service lanes would be demarcated and the traffic would be diverted on Mount Poonamallee Road to enable construction of the nearly Rs.35 crore flyover, said an official. Of the total estimate, Rs.19 crore has been set aside for land acquisition.
The delay in acquiring lands was cited to be one of the reasons for the delay in the project, which commenced in March last year. The daily traffic volume in the busy junction is estimated to be one lakh passenger car units. The officials are confident that they would be able to complete the project in a year.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article2220632.ece
