The State government and the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation told the Court that they had no objections to the project.
Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram, however, told the Court that in August 2021, the High Court while hearing anticipatory bail applications filed by some land grabbers, had passed an order prohibiting any “non-forestry work in the Perumbakkam marshland.
The Court said that while any construction was not normally considered as a “forestry” activity, in the present case, the re-routing was a one-time activity. Therefore, the Court’s previous orders restricting “non-forestry work” must not act as an impediment for the metro project, it said.
“Thus, this Court is of the considered opinion that the order prohibiting any sort of non-forestry activity passed by this Court is not an impediment, since the proposal now mooted out by the CMRL cannot be construed as non-forestry activity and it is an one time installation of underground cable for the benefit of Metro Rail project and thus the order passed by this Court, cannot stand in the way of the authorities to complete the project in all respects, by rerouting the overhead line to underground cable, as per the specifications and designing now placed before this Court, at the earliest possible,” the order stated.
Source: Barandbench
