The ambitious plans to widen the Adyar river have not had much headway over the past few months, raising concerns about the impact this would have on the city during this year’s monsoon.
Only 50 per cent of the encroachments identified along the river banks has been removed so far. The work to widen and desilt the river, particularly within city limits beneath Nandambakkam, has reportedly come to a grinding halt three months ago.
Of the total distance of 42 km, the Water Resources Department started focussing on improving the 12-km stretch from Manapakkam to Adyar Estuary. Nearly 10,000 encroachments were identified on the riverbed. The river’s width is only between 30 metres to 50 metres in city limits. The plan to widen it at least to 100 metres has not progressed much.
Sources in the Water Resources Department said that severe funds crunch and issues of coordinated efforts with other government agencies, including the Revenue Department, led to the work getting stalled since March. Some contractors hesitated to take up new work for the department as they were yet to be paid for the works during the northeast monsoon to repair flood-affected portions of the river and waterbodies in the southern suburbs.
Stiff resistance from the residents of the areas where encroachments were identified and political interference are said to be the main reasons for the stalling of the eviction drive in places such as Saidapet and Adyar. The work to clear encroached structures in places such as Mallipoo Nagar, Dharma Nagar and Satya Nagar has not been carried out. Heaps of silt removed from the riverbed near Maraimalai Adigalar bridge are yet to be disposed of.
At present, the river has a capacity to carry about 70,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water and the project envisaged to increase it to a minimum of 1.20 lakh cusecs. However, the stalling of the project has triggered concerns about dealing with monsoon and residents demand that the desilting exercise be resumed to ensure free flow of water in the Adyar river.
Funds crunch
and lack of coordination among govt. agencies
stall the project
