Chennai corporation kept waiting for land for public infrastructure project

CHENNAI: As Greater Chennai Corporation plans more public infrastructure in crowded parts of the city, engineers have started encountering a serious space crunch even in areas where the city’s master plan has earmarked land for such projects.
According to sources, the civic body had planned and started executing work on a bridge over the Otteri Nullah on Stephenson Road in Perambur. This project was expected to improve traffic flow in that area and was to have a separate cycling track on the bridge, bringing cheer to the residents. However, the project has been stalled as a developer has not handed over a portion of land, which falls in front of their project, needed on one side of the bridge.
Incidentally, such land parcels have already been earmarked as ‘street alignment’ in the second master plan by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA). The classification means that the said land will be gifted by any developer or resident to the CMDA and later the GCC for road widening, bridge construction or similar public infrastructure projects. In exchange, Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) is given to the developer for use anywhere else in the city. The catch is that the land has to be given as a gift deed when the developer seeks a building permission.
GCC sources said in the case related to Otteri Nullah bridge, the developer has not given the land to the civic body stating that they have not sought building permission yet. “Though the land will eventually come to GCC, we are unable to move forward with the project right now,” an official said. GCC has written to the CMDA asking for a clarification if the land parcel can be used now as it has already been marked in the master plan.
The civic body has encountered a similar issue in the Kaliamman Koil Street widening project in Virugambakkam, an important thoroughfare in the area. Road alignment areas extend up to inside the living room of some homes, on the stretch an official said, posing a challenge to the project which has been in the works for many years now.