The Chennai Corporation’s task just got tougher with a flurry of unauthorised vendors scrambling to set up shops on the Marina.
A few months ago, the police and the Chennai Corporation generated a list of 1,212 vendors who would be relocated on the beach and compensated, as part of Marina restoration project. But with the police failing to act against unauthorised structures, the civic body is unable to control the mushrooming of vendors.
The stretch between Kannagi Statue and Gandhi Statue is the most sought after, and the number of illegal shops has now crossed 1,500. At least two to five shops are set up every day. Vendors pay anything between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 1.25 lakh to political groups for a spot on the beach, a source said.
The Corporation made a public announcement a few months ago asking vendors to remove all illegal structures, in order to facilitate the restoration of the beach. But the vendors have not removed the shops so far, according to civic body officials. As the tendering process for new structures is under way, the Corporation officials plan to remove the illegal structures with police support shortly.
Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy told the Chennai Corporation council, a few months ago, that the civic body would soon beautify the beach. He said the civic body would regulate vendors based on the results of a study conducted on the beach.
The civic body proposes to design a new arrangement of aesthetic structures for shops on the 3.1-km-long beach.
Keywords: Marina, Chennai Corporation, Illegal shops, unauthorised vendors, Marina restoration project
Why can't the government allocate some locations along the Marina for commercial purposes and legalize the same?
The madras beach is supposed to be one of the best beaches in the world considering its
long stretch and width. If the beach is not maintained properly, the beauty
of the beach will be lost for ever. The story about people raising shops with the support of powerful people makes everybody sad. The state government and the city corporation should take all steps to retain the beauty of the iconic beach to attract people from all parts of the world, and if that is not done, the city's image will be tarnished.
When I see the Marina these days, I am overwhelmed with sadness. The steady encroachment of hawkers on the beach has reduced the Marina to a slum. What was an elegant beach not so long ago is now a debris-ridden and smelly open air dumping ground that the people of the city call a place for recreation. The hawkers have to be removed (all of them) and only licenced stalls should be operated - not on the beach, again, but in specially allotted/constructed spaces meant for them.
The police are "failing" to "act". Please interview the vendors to know how much they pay and whom. There are standard practices for these offences.
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