The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Land acquisition for automobile factory runs into roadblocks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Land acquisition for automobile factory runs into roadblocks

A.Srivathsan and V.Venkatasubramanian

800 acres in Vadukupattu already acquired by developer

CHENNAI : The State Government's effort to acquire about 1,200 acres of land for setting up the M&M-Renault factory in and around Vadukupattu village, on the outskirts of Chennai, has brought new issues about large-scale land acquisition.

Official sources said that initially when the government set to acquire lands, it took for granted that the land measuring about 800 acres in Vadukupattu, which was under judicial dispute, was available.

But on enquiry found that these lands were already acquired by the Hiranandani Developers Limited to set up a large-scale housing project. The State Government was not even aware of such a large-scale acquisition till it faced problems with its own efforts to acquire land. The sources said an enquiry had been ordered and the Kancheepuram Collectorate is looking into this issue.

Meanwhile, the government has identified the land for Renault Factory, which includes a part of the Chennaikuppam lake catchment area.

Under litigation

Most of the 800 acres of the land acquired by the Hiranandani developers belongs to the Madras Motors Finance Limited Group and was under litigation.

Officials at Hiranandani Developers said these lands were made over to them after following proper procedures and they are the sole owners of the property.

The government sources said within the 800 acres there are properties, which have been notified for acquisition and also public streams. However, officials at Hiranandani strongly deny this and say so far no government official orders have been issued to them.

They acknowledge that a peripheral part of their land near Chennaikuppam was initially considered for acquisition, but said so far no notice had been issued. They also strongly denied the news that their housing project has been shelved.

This whole incident has raised a serious issue. Experts think that if the government has located and identified such large tracts of land and proactively acquired them and created land banks, there will be no need to use up the catchment area or cause hardships to small landowners.

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