A Madras High Court division bench, comprising of justices TS Sivagnanam and Bhavani Subbaroyan, on December 14, 2018, reserved its orders after conclusion of arguments, on petitions that challenged the land acquisition for the Salem-Chennai highway project. The Rs 10,000-crore, 277.3-km-long eight-lane Salem-Chennai expressway, which aims to cut the travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes, has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who are opposed to felling of trees for the project.
Earlier, the project director of the National Highways Authority of India’s project implementation unit, Kancheepuram, filed a counter, contending that the question of dispossession did not arise, if the notification under Section 3D of the National Highway Act was not issued. Section 3D provides for declaration of acquisition of land by the central government for purposes as enumerated under Section 3A (1) of the National Highways Act, 1956. The director further said in compliance with the court’s September 4, 2018, order, the authorities had so far, not published the 3D notification.
On December 3, 2018, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued a fresh set of notifications, to initiate land acquisition in Salem, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai and Kancheepuram district, for the project. The court had, on December 4, 2018, directed assistant solicitor general G Karthikeyan, to file an affidavit, explaining the effect and impact of the new notification to acquire 1,125 acres of land.
Courtesy/By: Shubham Mathur
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18 Dec 2018
