Metro may realign station outside Pachaiyappa

CHENNAI: Green activists and University teachers, who have been protesting against the proposal to construct a station for the Chennai Metro Rail on the Pachaiyappa’s College campus, may finally have reason to cheer as the authorities are likely to realign the proposed station.Pachiayappa’s Trust chairman M K Loganathan told Express on Friday that after a series of negotiations held with the Metro Rail authorities and the Chief Secretary, it was agreed that the underground railway station would not be built on the college premises, but on an adjacent road instead.“It will be built outside the campus. So, the college will be losing only 37 cents of land. Although there  is no compensation involved, the Metro Rail will pay `10 crore to the college as a goodwill gesture,”  Loganathan said.However, since the work would be carried out on the road, the college will provide one acre of land in view of the traffic diversion, which will be in effect during the period. “This land will be given back to the college once the work is completed,” he said.According to Loganathan, the agreement to this effect had been accepted in principle.  “We received the details about the alignment and measurement on Thursday,” he said. Association of University Teachers president Dr Va Mu Se Andavar, who is also the president of the Pachaiyappa Reserve, told Express that the decision to change the alignment was taken 15 days ago.  “We thank the media for giving us moral support,” he said. He said that the earlier trustees of the Pachaiyappa’s Trust Board had done injustice to the institution by giving their acceptance to the Metro Rail authorities to acquire the land.It was Exnora International founder and chairman M B Nirmal, an alumnus of the college, who was in the forefront to save the trees on the campus.The move would save the trees and rare species of plants with medicinal value, which serve as a carbon sink and green lungs of this area, he said.No Word Yet: Metro RailHowever, the Metro Rail authorities were tightlipped over the change in alignment.  “We are yet to get any official communication in this matter,” said a Metro Rail spokesperson.