Chennai: Two major industrial projects aimed at putting Chennai on the global map by setting up an Integrated Financial City at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore and establishing a state-of-the-art aerospace park near Sriperumbudur at a cost of Rs 300 crore are gathering dust along with the long pending green field airport proposed in Kancheepuram district.
Interestingly, all three projects come under the Kancheepuram district administration and are crucial for the growth of Chennai as an industrial hub.
According to informed secretariat sources, it has been at least two years, since the file works related to these projects moved on. “There were some paper works taken up for the aerospace park when global investors meet event was conducted by Jayalalithaa in 2015 since then no major new projects have taken off,” an informed official said.
Besides the state's lack of will to expedite these projects, the recent transfers in the industries department ranging from department secretaries to project officers are also reason affecting the flow of project execution, the official said.
When asked whether the project has been shelved, a senior official in Kancheepuram district, said that the projects were very much in the pipeline.
“Field survey, land marking and notification and paper publicity has been done for all these projects where several acres of land have to be acquired. The projects are still at the proposal stage only after the state concurrence the land will be taken over and handed over for the development projects, the official said.
“The delay in the projects had also affected the local public particularly the farmers. Most of the farmers have given up irrigation and wanted to dispose their land to realtors. But with the government dragging the projects, the public has no option they have to wait until the government acquires the identified land,” said D. Vijayakumar, a realtor based in Tambaram.
Registration of land is restricted for several tracts of land in Kancheepuram and if the government scraps the project the victims of land acquisition will breath easy or the state should acquire the identified land and provide compensation so that the residents will move on, he added.
