Reconsider plan to build metro station at apartment entrance, Villivakkam TNHB residents urge CMRL

CHENNAI: Residents of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB), for over a year, have been urging the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to reconsider its plan of constructing an underground Metro station in phase II along the MTH Road.

The TNHB residents recently approached the CMRL yet again, and requested the utility to reconsider the location chosen for the station, in the interest of people living at the apartment for over three years.

Near the Nadhamuni Metro station planned near TNHB flats, 324 families have been living there. As CMRL had decided to acquire the land (exactly at the entrance of the TNHB flats), residents have been in a state of panic.

Speaking to DT Next, a resident said, “We’ll be forced to approach the court if CMRL authorities fail to reconsider their plan to shift the Nadhamuni Metro station from Villivakkam TNHB Vilvam Towers to the Villivakkam Nathamuni junction as planned earlier. We would also like experts from one of the IITs to be consulted about the original plan.”

The letter by the resident added, “The CMRL has to disprove the allegation with supporting documents/sketches that the original plan at Nathamuni junction was dropped to avoid disputes as against the demolition of the existing buildings in and around Nathamuni junction, and also to avoid loss by disbursing quantum of compensation on the higher side to the private parties.”

For the construction of five underground Metro stations

The CMRL has signed a contract with TATA Projects to construct 5 Metro stations – one each at Kolathur Junction, Srinivasa Nagar, Villivakkam, Villivakkam Bus Terminus and Nadhamuni, along with entry/exit, ventilation shafts, plumbing, earth mat, architectural finishes and signages among others.