Chennai: The long wait for completion of the MRTS stretch be tween Velacherry and St Thomas Mount may be finally over, thanks to the Madras high court.

Chennai: The long wait for completion of the MRTS stretch be tween Velacherry and St Thomas Mount may be finally over, thanks to the Madras high court.

Marking an end of litigation over 4,530sqmt land stretching for about half a kilometer, which had delayed the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) Phase-II extension, the high court has said compensation to owners of acquired land at Thillai Ganga Nagar in Nanganallur should be calculated in terms of the new land acquisition law.

In an order which means much higher compensation package to land-losers, Justice M Sathyanarayanan said: “It is not in serious dispute that only a minimal extent of land is to be taken possession and as pointed out by additional advocate general it is only about 4,530sqmt. Once it is taken possession, the project will be complete and the travelling public will be immensely benefited and traffic congestion in Chennai will also be eased.“

The judge also set aside a special tahsildar’s order fixing compensation on the basis of Land Acquisition Act 1894, and directed him to proceed under the new acquisition law ­ the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. “This court is of the view that the interim draft award as well as notices issued under the old act have to be set aside quashed with a consequential direction directing the jurisdictional district collector competent authority to proceed afresh in terms of Sec 40(3) of the new Act.Railway authorities also are not having any serious objection for resorting to such a course. Adoption of such a course, not only advances public interest, but will also avoid further time and cost overrun in the implementation of the project,“ he observed. The order marks culmination of the second round of litigation. The first round started after authorities invoked the emergency clause and dispensed with personal hearing of land owners before their pieces of land were taken over.

The present cases are about notices being issued by the special tahsildar for MRTS phase-II extension calling upon individual land owners to appear before him in person along with documents such as title, patta and tax receipts for 30 years for receiving the compensation package. The notices were dated September 18, 2014. Land owners contested the quantum of compensation saying since the new land acquisition Act came into force on January 1, 2014, their compensation should be in terms of the new Act, and not the old one.