Rs 1,400 crore to clean city canals

Chennai, June 10: While World Environment Day was observed in the city last week, the fate of Adyar river that criss-crosses south Chennai continues to be under serious threat as a result of spiralling urbanisation and industrialisation. This situation has risen despite huge investments by governments in cleaning the Adyar and its estuary.
The recent project that proved to be a failure was the Chennai City River Conservation Project completed in 2005 at an estimated cost of Rs 491 crore. The end result being that the river has now become a sewage canal and its survival is at stake.
According to Prof S. Ramachandran, vice-chancellor, Madras University, who is also an expert in fresh and marine water ecology, the Adyar was the lifeline of Chennai till the ’60s. Now, it is severely deprived of dissolved oxygen and its floral and faunal resources have eroded.
According to him, de-silting and assuring free flow of water would bring immediate respite to the river. The mouth of the Adyar has to be widened to allow the mingling of marine and fresh water, he added.
When contacted, Chennai mayor M. Subramanian said that the river had lost its sheen and glory. The city corporation has proposed a Rs 1,400 crore macro and micro drain project to cleanse 16 canals that are maintained by it. The civic body will also coordinate with the public works department to ensure that the Adyar is rejuvenated. The mayor also exuded confidence in the corporation’s macro drain project which will help improve the quality of Adyar’s water.
According to government statistics, there are more than 35,000 slum families encroaching upon the banks of the Adyar, Cooum and Buckingham Canal. And under the CCRCP project, resettlement of families has to be implemented by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, which is pending since 2005.