Chennai Corporation resumes eco-park works at Perungudi

CHENNAI: Despite the residents around Pallikaranai marshland as well as the environmentalists opposing the proposed eco-park project on the reclaimed Perungudi dumping yard and demanding to retain it as a marsh, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has initiated measures to create the eco-park.

A senior civic official confirmed that the GCC is in the process of preparing a new detailed project report (DPR). “A stakeholders meeting will be conducted once the new DPR is prepared. We will create the eco-park in a way that the public utilizes the facility,” the official added.

It was reliably learned that D Karthikeyan, secretary of municipal administration and water supply department, discussed the progress of DPR preparation and other proposals, including waste processing facilities in Perungudi, with the GCC officials on Friday.

In February, the civic body conducted a public hearing on the proposal and presented a detailed project report. But, the residents opposed the eco-park. They requested the civic body to leave the reclaimed land as marshland once the bio-mining of legacy waste is completed in the Perungudi dumping yard.

A Francis, president of the Federation of Thoraipakkam Residents Welfare Associations, one of the activists who opposed the proposal at the stakeholders meeting, said that the residents are still opposing the eco-park.

“We will oppose the proposal in all its forms. The civic body claims that it will increase the water spread area. Storing water without removing the entire legacy waste will result in high groundwater pollution. Legacy waste is found at 10 to 15 feet depth. But the bio-mining is carried out at surface level only,” he said.

As per the earlier DPR, eco-park would be created on 93 acres of Perungudi landfill at a total cost of Rs 185 crore. The eco-park would have a knowledge centre, toilets, parking and bird-watch towers. The park would have six ponds with a total water holding capacity of 16.86 crore litres. Of the 93 acres, 62.40 per cent of the land would have a green belt area, while ponds would occupy 25.56 per cent of the land.

On the other hand, the civic body refused to hand over the marshland on which Perungudi dumping yard lies to the forest department. In a response to the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the civic body explained that there are proposals to be implemented for ‘integrated environmental friendly’ projects after land reclamation and informing that the civic body is not in a position to hand over the land to the forest department.

Of the 445 acres (173 hectares) owned by the Chennai Corporation around 250 acres are being used as a dumping yard, and the Perungudi dumping yard had 30.61 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste.

Despite being one of the most polluted wetlands in the city, Pallikaranai supports 65 types of migratory birds, 105 kinds of local birds, 50 types of fishes, ten types of mammals and 34 kinds of butterflies. In total, the marshland supports 625 species, including 167 plant species.