COIMBATORE: The city corporation has received Rs2 crore from the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to do a land plan survey for two metro corridors in the city.
The land plan survey is set to commence from Wednesday for 35 kilometres in total – 20.4km for corridor I on Avinashi Road and 14.4km for corridor II on Sathyamangalam Road.
The survey will involve end-to-end road mapping, identification of underground cables like high-tension power lines and telecommunication lines, mapping of water supply pipelines and underground drainage chambers. The report will also suggest relocation plans for utilities that obstruct metro construction.
The corporation has enlisted two private surveying agencies, one from Delhi and another from Chennai, on a trial basis, to conduct the survey. To ensure proper supervision of the survey work, corporation commissioner M Sivaguru Prabhakaran has also requested CMRL to appoint a deputy commissioner level officer, one assistant and two technical support officers.
On roping in two surveying agencies, a senior corporation officer said the trial will involve each agency surveying a 100-metre stretch at different locations. Based on the accuracy of their reports, one agency will be finalized for the entire survey. According to the officer, advanced technologies such as DGPS, mobile LiDAR scanning and ground penetrating radar would be deployed for utility mapping. The civic body has not specified a deadline for completing the survey.
If land survey itself poses a challenge, the land acquisition process that would follow would throw even bigger hurdles. Deeply buried pipelines might not be detected by radar during the survey, posing a significant challenge. Additionally, relocating the identified pipelines will also be a complicated process.
Coimbatore collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar said the land acquisition along Avinashi Road, where established industries, educational institutions and hospitals are located, will be more challenging compared to Sathyamangalam Road. A consultative meeting with CMRL is planned to explore strategies used in previous metro projects for seamless land acquisition process. There would be technical complexities as well on Sathyamangalam Road, as highway expansion work is also underway.
Another key challenge would be traffic management. Widening of the road and carrying out metro rail work without causing significant traffic congestion would be a herculean task.
Consumer rights activist K Kathirmathiyon expressed optimism pointing out that Chennai metro, which had similar impediments, was implemented successfully. However, he pointed out that compensation for the acquired land would be challenging. There would be disparity between govt base values and market rates. Disputes may also arise from varying compensation amounts for adjacent properties, which might lead to objections from land owners.
Regarding Avinashi Road, preliminary discussions with prominent private educational institutions had already taken place, minimizing the likelihood of disputes.
