METRO RAIL: Anna Nagar,Mogappair residents on agitation path

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on September 9, 2010:

CHENNAI: With the state government conveniently forgetting the public anticipation on Metro Rail’s slight deviation to cover Anna Nagar West and Mogappair areas (in Corridor-2 between Thirumangalam and Koyambedu), locals are planning a massive campaign in the coming weeks to seek the officials’ attention on the perennial transportation issue.

Talking to Express, S Venkatesan, joint secretary of Federation Of Residents Associations Of Anna Nagar Western Extension and Mogappair (FORAAM), a united body of more than 20 residents welfare associations, said, “People residing in and around Mogappair, Nolambur, Ambattur Industrial Estate, Anna Nagar Western Extension and Padi are totally disappointed and feeling that these areas are totally neglected by the government despite repeated pleas to include them in the metro rail map.”

We had asked the government for a slight deviation in Route Corridor-2 between Thirumangalam and Koyambedu stretch so that the traffic woes of the residents in these localities would end permanently, Venkatesan added.

Mogappair is now the biggest residential area outnumbering any other area in the city by its extent as well as by number of people residing in it.

FORAAM as early as in May 2008 proposed to the Metro Rail officials for a slight deviation in the route in corridor-2 so that the Mogappair area also could be included in the rail map.

This deviation was to cover a wide area of residential locality and cover as many as dozen schools, two professional colleges and the big industrial estate without altering the originally proposed coverage, said V Rajagopal, president of Anna Nagar West Extension (Phase-II) Residents Welfare Association.

“All along we have been campaigning in a disciplined and democratic manner, and the residents are now planning to start afresh with a massive campaign to tell the government what they want,” Rajagopal added.

Residents say the deviation will incur minimal expenditure when compared to the total expenditure nd the revenue it will generate will definitely compensate the additional expenditure incurred.