CMDA does it again, reclassifies waterbody in Ayapakkam as housing layout

According to the notification issued by the planning authority, a resident of Anna Nagar had applied for the reclassification of 3.82 acres of land, which was classified as a waterbody as per the masterplan. The waterbody is in Ayapakkam village near Avadi.

This is not the first time when CMDA is entertaining reclassification applications to convert waterbodies into building plans. A few months ago, the planning authority had received a lot of flak from ecological activists for entertaining an application from Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation Limited to reclassify Red Hills catchment area into an industrial zone. Despite opposition, CMDA also allowed the police department to construct a police station on Thamaraikeni Lake in Sholinganallur recently by reclassifying the land use as an institutional zone from a waterbody.However, CMDA officials claim that they are reclassifying the land use based on the existing rules. “We provide 21 days to the public to view the reclassification notifications. If we receive any objections from the public for conversion, we will reject the applications. But if there are no objections, we will have to allow reclassification if the landowner demands,” an official said. However, S Janakarajan, former professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) and water activist opined that reclassifying the land use of waterbodies is unfair.

“The issue can be challenged in the court of law if waterbodies are converted into other uses. Also, we cannot create new waterbodies in the city. We should keep the existing ones as it is. We have lost a major portion of Pallikaranai marsh due to the reclassification of land use,” he said.