To ensure fewer residents are affected, a major part of Chennai Metro’s phase II project will be built on government land.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the whole project, estimated to cost ₹69,180 crore and spanning 119 km, across 128 stations, will need 120.98 hectares of land.

Of this, Chennai Metro will require 27.19 hectares of private land and the remaining 93.79 hectares will be government land. “This time, we made a conscious decision to primarily use government land and ensure that a minimum number of people are affected,” said an official.

Smaller stations

“When compared to phase I, we acquired less land for the phase I extension. For phase II, we will acquire only what is absolutely essential. Even the size of the stations has been brought down from 220 metres in phase I to 150 metres in phase II,” the official said.

Chennai Metro will need 1,309 properties, of which 104 are residential and the remaining 937 are commercial. The officials said the families and landowners will be adequately compensated.

The compensation for land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation will be done under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Apart from land for stations and other buildings, land would be needed for building depots at Madhavaram, SIPCOT and Poonamallee, to be constructed for maintaining trains and other related activities. “Madhavaram depot will be built over 27.8 hectares and the SIPCOT depot will be built over an area of 4.5 hectares. In Poonamallee, the depot will be built over 15.4 hectares,” an official said. Chennai Metro has already begun the process of sending notices to residents and shopowners for land acquisition.