CHENNAI: In an act of throwing the coastal regulation laws to the wind, a road has been laid at the turtle nesting site of Injambakkam beach by unidentified persons, allegedly to aid construction works in prohibited coastal stretches. Several tonnes of construction debris were dumped on the beach and the road was reportedly laid in the last week of September.
The site, which falls in Zone 15 of Chennai Corporation, is already under the scanner of Madras High Court for construction of several unauthorised buildings in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
After activists IH Sekhar and K Saravanan raised an alarm and filed a police complaint, the road laying works were stopped. But the debris continued piling up on the beach when TNIE visited the spot a few days ago. The illegally laid road measured up to 10 metres.
Sekhar, who has been fighting against unauthorised constructions in Injambakkam for the past two decades and filed at least a dozen PILs before Madras High Court, claimed that there were demolition orders passed by HC way back in 2008 against several structures that are built in violation of CRZ rules in the area. “The construction debris was dumped by unidentified persons to lay the road, which we immediately removed,” zonal officer Sukumar claimed.