Sholinganallur Landowners Demand Plots Back Over Rs 11,250 Compensation

More than 35 years after the Tamil Nadu government initiated proceedings to acquire residential land in Tesco Layout in Sholinganallur, 178 plot owners are demanding that the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) return their plots. The move comes after the housing board offered a compensation rate of Rs 11,250 per ground in 2024, which owners say is far below prevailing guideline and market values on the city's IT corridor.

The original notification to acquire 10 acres from the plot owners was issued in 1993 for the Sholinganallur phase III neighbourhood housing scheme. However, the details of the intended acquisition were not recorded in the sub-registrar office until 2010, leading to secondary sales where subsequent buyers also became entangled in the dispute.

According to plot owner P Antony Sami, landowners had purchased the plots for Rs 10,000 per ground in 1990. Following legal proceedings, the Supreme Court in 2010 directed TNHB to provide fair compensation or alternative sites to the affected landowners. Despite the directive, landowners say TNHB issued letters in 2024 fixing compensation at just Rs 11,250 per ground, and that no compensation has been disbursed to them so far.

TNHB officials stated that the board has already constructed 1,000 apartments on a portion of the land and has earmarked the remaining area to develop another 1,000 apartments, making it impossible to release the parcels earmarked for future development.

Landowners dispute this claim. R Senthamarai Kannan, another original plot owner, stated that the 1,000 completed apartments were built under a different survey number and that the land in Tesco Layout remains vacant. In a petition submitted to Housing and Urban Development Minister B Rajkumar, Kannan urged the government to return the unutilised plots.

The landowners have requested the state government to return their plots under a policy previously introduced to release unused lands acquired by TNHB. The earlier DMK administration released 4,396.44 acres of land involved in decades-old TNHB acquisition proceedings after reviewing 4,488 petitions, while files for further land releases remain under government examination.