Express Buzz; Gokul Chandrasekar; Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011,
CHENNAI: The New Indian Express, in its Tuesday issue, had exposed the violation of CRZ rules by private parties, as they attempted to change the course of the Adyar River for their gains, but the problem is only a tip of the iceberg. Massive development activities are underway across the river’s course and in close proximity of the sea that are complete violations of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules of 2011.
The construction of the proposed three-lane Adyar Bridge over the river, adjacent to the present Thiru Vi Ka Bridge, for instance, was happening without a CRZ clearance. To an RTI query addressed to the highways department asking if they had obtained the CRZ clearance to build the bridge, the department had replied that no CRZ clearance was necessary to modify existing structures. “CRZ allows modification of existing structures only on the landward side and not on the seaward side, as they are constructing right now. But in the first place, they have not even applied for a CRZ clearance, let alone the construction be right or wrong,” says Nityanand Jayaraman, who filed the RTI.
As a part of the construction, numerous sand bags have been dumped across the river to restrict the flow of water causing stagnation. Situation further worsened when the sand bars formed on the mouth of the river reduced the flow further and the recent bout of rains increased stagnation.
“We’ve received complaints of water stagnation and associated stench and mosquito problem along the course of the river. We’ve already desilted the mouth of the river and have also initiated other measures to ease the water flow,” said a senior PWD official to the City Express.
Standing over the broken bridge, one can see that significant land reclamation activity had been carried out on the northern bank of the river adjacent to the Chettinad Palace by unidentified agencies. Land reclamation of any kind was prohibited under the CRZ rules unless it was meant for any foreshore facility, that too only after conducting a scientific study and carrying out an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
Land reclamation had been prohibited by the rules as literature stated that it posed a greater threat to the environment, because it damaged the natural habitat of marine animals and plants, blocked estuaries and caused flooding in coastal areas.
While eco-groups like Save Chennai Beaches Campaign and government agencies like the Adyar Poonga Trust and PWD have been taking significant measures to improve the quality of the Adyar Estuary and the surrounding ecosystem, lax implementation of CRZ rules were rendering their efforts futile.
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