Red-tapism, fund crunch keeps restoration of Buckingham Canal in limbo

CHENNAI: An eye-sore to the vision of Singara Chennai, the Buckingham Canal has been the proverbial Moby Dick for almost every ruling party in Tamil Nadu. Known as Cochrane’s Canal (after its principal financier Basil Cochrane) over 200 years ago, there has been no dearth of plans to maintain, beautify and restore it – all of which have failed due to several reasons.

After being let down by policy makers and legislators for years, the Madras High Court passed an order on September 12, 2022, directing the restoration of the Buckingham Canal.

Years have passed, the order is yet to be implemented in letter and spirit. Red-tapism coupled with financial crunch seems to have emerged as the villain with the State and the custodian agencies ducking over the issue.

Though a Detailed Project Report (DPR) was submitted by the Water Resources Department (WRD) in October 2023 to the State government, the restoration that promises Buckingham Canal free from encroachments and pollution is still a non-starter for the reasons best known to the administrators.

The HC order

A navigable and a transportation canal of men and goods, and an important waterway in the late 19th and 20th centuries, the 418-km Buckingham Canal acts as a flood moderator during the northeast monsoon by discharging the flood waters into the sea through the mouths at Ennore, Cooum, Adyar and Muttukadu, thus safeguarding the city from flooding and inundation.

However, the rapid urbanisation and encroachments in the form of government buildings, MRTS stations, residential buildings and commercial establishments along the canal have almost completely disabled its function.

Considering this, the Madras HC directed the Executive Engineer, PWD, Water Resource Organisation, Araniaru Storm Water Drain Division, to strictly adhere to the timeline of 6 months given for demarcation of the boundary of Buckingham Canal.

“The demarcation boundary has to be made with reference to the original length and breadth of the canal as found in the original records. The canal shall be restored to its original boundaries within one year,” said a division bench, comprising the then Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala of the Madras HC, in their order to the State government and Greater Chennai Corporation. “Under no circumstance, the timeline will be extended. All officials responsible for not keeping the timeline will be made accountable for such lapses irrespective of whether they are in service or retired,” the Court had said in its order.

Despite this order, which mandated the timeline of one year, the State government has failed to adhere to the timeline. 

‘Govt inaction reprehensible’

“It’s mandatory to maintain the canal to its original width as Chennai is fully urbanised. The rainfall runoff volumes are very high. Considering the adverse impact of climate change, any reduction in size of the canal will lead to inundation in the western sides of the city due to delayed flood surplus discharge,” pointed out Dayanand Krishnan, an activist, working on water bodies and environment.

Commenting on this, retired Justice of the MHC, Hari Paranthaman, said, “This is not the first HC verdict, which has issued directions to the State government to remove encroachments along the canal. There have been many verdicts like this. It’s not possible to evict encroachments immediately along the canal or any other water bodies.”

Condemning the concerned authorities, CPM State general secretary K Balakrishnan, who staged multiple protests over the encroachments told DT Next that the non-implementation of the HC order even after two years is reprehensible. “Citing fund crunch or any other reasons for the alleged delay may not be the right course of action. The State government must create special funds for the restoration project and implement the HC order as soon as possible,” he added.

Balakrishnan also flagged the issue of evicting encroachers from the banks of the canal without allocating appropriate alternative houses to live, and urged the State government to publish the DPR of the restoration project for a discussion before it’s implemented.

Pointing out the HC order, the BJP flayed the ruling DMK government, and accused WRD Minister Duraimurugan of “incompetence”. “Why is the State government continuing to ignore the rehabilitation work of the canal, Cooum and Adyar rivers? If Chennai’s most important canals are not restructured, how will the new storm water drains help? How can we prevent sewage from entering homes and harming people's health?” the BJP questioned in its official ‘X’ handle.

Further, the BJP urged the Stalin-led government to release a white paper about the fund allocation for the projects on Cooum, Adyar and Buckingham Canal and the list of works completed so far. 

Official response

Explaining the alleged delay, a senior WRD official said the department has planned to implement the HC order in two phases, soon after availing the State government’s nod.

“We’ve submitted preliminary reports, including Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) and DPR, by Anna University to get CRZ clearance for the restoration work of the Buckingham Canal. The work will commence after the State government scrutinises the proposal. It will be a comprehensive project, where several departments, including Revenue, PWD and GCC will be involved to restore the waterbody,” an official told this newspaper.

HISTORY:

· Buckingham Canal runs parallel to the Coromandel Coast from Kakinada of Andhra Pradesh to Parangipettai near Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu

· Initially called Cochrane's Canal, after its principal financier Basil Cochrane

· Renamed Buckingham Canal in 1878 because the 8 km stretch that links the Adyar and Cooum rivers was built on the orders of the then Governor, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1877–78 as a famine relief work

· Madras High Court passed an order on September 12, 2022, directing the State government to restore the Buckingham Canal

· Though a DPR was submitted by the Water Resources Department in October 2023 to the State government, the restoration work is still a non-starter