The Madras High Court today quashed the land acquisition process for the ₹ 10,000 crore Chennai-Salem greenfield corridor, stating, the project would have adverse effect on environment and water bodies.
With ten days left for the Lok Sabha and the 18 Assembly bypolls, the order is a setback for the ruling AIADMK government.
A special division bench of Justices TS Sivagnanam and Bhavani Subbaroyan passed the order on allowing a batch of pleas moved by PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, and 35 land owners directly affected by the project and advocate AP Suryapragasam. Interestingly, both PMK and AIADMK are now alliance partners in the forthcoming elections to be held in Tamil Nadu on April 18.
The Bench said that the project needs major realignments, and ruled out public hearing.
The proposed alignment for the 277-km greenfield highway starts near Chennai Outer Ring Road junction and pass through Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem districts. This is part of the Centre’s plan to develop economic corridors, inter corridors, feeder corridors and national corridors to improve freight movements under the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ programme.