Sources from Chennai added that the Tamilnadu government has assured the Madras High Court that land acquisition proceedings for the Salem-Chennai Expressway will not be carried out until September 20, the date of the next hearing. Meanwhile contrary to several media reports, no stay has been ordered by the High Court on the land acquisition.
Earlier on Friday, the Madras High Court placed on record the government's submission to this effect and ordered the National Highways Authority of India (NHA) to file a flow chart of all the assessments and studies undertaken for the project thus far. Accordingly the NHAI's Project Director in Kancheepuram had filed an affidavit on the status of environmental impact assessment and the feasibility studies of the project.
Meanwhile the proposed 277.30 km long highway to connect Chennai and Salem
district has seen protests by farmers, environmental activists and political
parties in the state, who have slammed the state government for not consulting
the people whose agricultural lands and livelihoods are at stake. Reports added
the court ordered the government to explicitly make it known to the concerned
authorities for the project’s environment impact assessment that 109 trees had,
in fact, been felled.
