The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Makeshift road on Marina sandy stretch draws flak

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Friday, Dec 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Makeshift road on Marina sandy stretch draws flak

Kannal Achuthan

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

A view of the makeshift road on the sandy stretch of beach where the river Cooum meets the Bay of Bengal.

Chennai: Environmentalists and regular visitors to the Marina beach have expressed concern over a makeshift road laid on the sandy stretch where the Cooum meets the Bay of Bengal.

The road has been formed using construction debris and rubble. An earthmover deployed to clear loads of garbage washed up in the Cooum estuary after the recent rain was seen using the road on Thursday. The earthmover was used to remove several tonnes of garbage collected and stored in trenches by Chennai Corporation workers.

Environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman said that the makeshift road was laid on a Coastal Regulation Zone I, the classification for ecologically sensitive areas and the zone between low and high tides. Construction was not permitted in the zone. “The road has been laid on the seaward side of the High Tide Line,” he said. Construction debris was also found near the road.

Regulars at the beach said that the clearing of trash had improved the beach but they were worried that the road would facilitate increased dumping of construction debris and harm coastal ecology.

The Corporation and the Public Works Department, which are both in charge of the beach, must immediately restore the sandy stretch of the beach, they said.

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