Chennai Corporation constructs parking lots and road on beaches: Research
Chennai- According to a research, beaches in several parts of the Chennai city are being converted into roads and parking spaces.
This study was commissioned by Save Chennai Beaches Campaign and was run by faculty members of various institutions like Indian Institute of Science. The study revealed that above 15 acre of beach area of city has already been transformed into roads and parking lots by agencies like Public Works Department (PWD), Chennai Corporation and many private bodies.
In past few years, the parking lots at Pattinapakkam are developed by 2.6 acres of beach sands. The Chennai Corporation and PWD gradually dumped and compacted all debris in this area to convert into parking lots. As per the study, debris is dumped on Thiruvanmiyur beach by private body to build road on 0.28 acre of area. This body has also invaded another 3.4 acre of area.
A 0.4 acre and 0.3 acres of sands in Srinivasapuram beach has also been converted into shed and road by dumping the debris. PWD encroached the area to construct road leading to Adyar estuary while the identity of agency which converted sands into shed area is still not known.
The research also found out that both PWD and Chennai Corporation created a bund in an 5.78 acre of area by dumping debris in an intertidal zone of Adhar creek. The Chennai Corporation, PWD and many private contractors converted over 5.71 acre of the beach at Adyar river at Anna Sathya nagar and currently debris has been dumped mudflats of the Adyar river.
The Chennai Corporation also dumped debris 0.35 area of Kapaleeswarar Nagar beach to construct a road till Periya Neelangarai. In total the civic body has been found dumping debris at many coastal areas of Chennai city. But the civic officials defended themselves by pointing that they were just dumping debris at dumping yards.
From 2001 to 2004, the Google Earth images depicted that a area of beach in Pattinapakkam was completely covered with sands. And now after this research it was found that this area is converted into parking lots. Researches feel that this conversion is completely unauthorised which would increase contamination from inland aquifers.
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Beaches of Chennai, Chennai, Chennai beaches, Chennai Corporation, construction of road, Parking Spaces, Peaking lots, Public works department, PWD
