Plea against construction of theatres

CHENNAI: A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court for a direction to the authorities concerned not to grant approval to Sathyam Cinemas to construct a multi-storey building to house eight theatres and shopping malls. The first bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam, before which the public interest writ petition from Ambika Menon of Habibullah Road, T Nagar, came up for hearing on Saturday, ordered notice to the Rural Development and Local Administration department, CMDA, Chennai Corporation and others, returnable in three weeks.According to advocate S Prabakaran, the building of the Nadigar Sangam Trust on Dr Narasimhan Street, North Boag Road, was being demolished.The South Indian Actors’ Association had let out the entire premises to Sathyam Cinemas group for constructing a multi-storey building housing cinema threatres and shopping malls. The area in and around Habibullah Road was predominantly a residential area and a congested one.