Highway dept recovers encroached land by petrol bunk at Koyambedu

CHENNAI: Tension prevailed at Koyambedu on Friday when the state highways department officials removed Bharat Petroleum's petrol pumping station opposite the CMBT on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai for encroaching upon its land.

According to the highways department official, the petrol pumping station has encroached upon about four and a half grounds of its land worth Rs 30 crore. "As we are marking boundaries for the stormwater drain, we identified the encroachment on the highways department land.

Hence we are taking action to remove the encroachment and take possession of the land, " the official added.

The official said that the agency has been directed to remove the underground fuel tank at the earliest. The highways department officials went to the pumping station with a bulldozer and a crane to remove the encroachment leading to a few moments of tension.

The pumping station staff had sought minimum time for vacating the premises, the official noted.

The highways department has been removing encroachments on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai as part of its stormwater drain construction works. On Wednesday, the highways department official removed encroachments at the junctions of Periyar Paadhai and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai.

As many as 11 shops occupying about 2000 square feet of land worth Rs 5 crore were demolished.