CHENNAI: The city’s frequent tryst with floods and cyclones has been throwing up novel ideas to minimise the damages. However, many of these plans continue to remain on paper as they are hit by development concerns. Among them is the five-year-old proposal to earmark a buffer zone along the banks of Adyar to protect residential areas and commercial establishments from flooding.
After the devastating floods of 2015, the Public Works Department (PWD) wanted to set a buffer zone of 500 metres along the river. The plan didn’t move forward as it would impact as many as 852 acres of prime land which was initially acquired for the Chennai airport expansion, but later denotified.
It is learnt that when the PWD’s proposal for buffer zone came up, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) opposed it on the ground that a buffer zone up to 500m or any other distance would be arbitrary and may not reflect the actual flooding condition. However, PWD sources told Express that the CMDA felt it is a sensitive issue involving several plot owners and prospective construction of several homes.
The 852 acres, acquired in 2007 for constructing a parallel runway, was not made to use as the Airports Authority of India in 2011 dropped the plan, stating that no significant improvement in aircraft movement would be achieved with the new runway. Ever since, this land has been lying idle as it is yet to be reclassified by the CMDA. The denotified land is located at Manapakkam, Gerugambakkam, Kolapakkam, Tharapakkam and Kovur villages in Sriperumbudur taluk of Kancheepuram district.
CMDA reclassifying lands under the buffer zone
Even as the buffer zone plan is gathering dust, the CMDA has been reclassifying the lands which come under the buffer zone of 500 metres based on conditional approval from the PWD. The CMDA only recently called for a detailed flood study by appointing a consultant in the field of flood modelling, to comply with a Madras High Court order on March 6, 2020.
Sources said appropriate land use has to be assigned taking into consideration planning permissions, approved layouts, reclassification and ground conditions, etc. On January 19, 2016, a comprehensive reclassification proposal was prepared and placed before a technical committee which recommended that the layouts falling under the 852 acres of denotified land should be assigned primarily for residential use.
It also sought details of maximum flood level with regard to the 2015 floods from the PWD for zoning of flood-prone areas. However, nothing has moved beyond it, except another meeting of the committee in April 2018. This meeting also failed to arrive at a decision. When Express contacted an official, he said that the issue has got nothing to do with floods. The area reserved for airport expansion has been defreezed and the officials are still conducting a study to assign the land use, he added.
State yet to enact Flood Plain Zoning says CAG report
According to a Comptroller and Auditor General report, the State has yet to enact the Flood Plain Zoning, a concept to regulate land use in the flood plains to restrict the damage caused by floods and determining the locations and extent of areas for developmental activities so that it does not affect environment. It was mandated by the Central Water Commission, which in 1975 circulated a model Bill of FPZ.
Even the Second Master Plan of Chennai prepared by the CMDA’s planners did not provide room for FPZ. K P Subramaniam, a former professor of Urban engineering in Anna University, said that the Centre in 2003 issued a guideline that floodplain zones should be excluded from any development but it has yet to be included in the development regulations. The CAG report states that the CMDA has approved 291 layouts in Chennai Metropolitan area of which 127 were within 15 metres of waterways.