Only 300 shops to be allowed on Marina Beach, 121 acres to be blue flag area: TN tells HC
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras High Court that about 121 acres on the Marina Beach has been earmarked for establishing Blue Flag project phases and only 300 shops will be allowed to run business on the beach.
The submission was made by Advocate General (AG) P S Raman before a special bench of justices R Suresh Kumar and A D Jagadish Chandira on Tuesday when a case on allotment of shops on the beach came up for hearing.
The court has appointed retired Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, N Paul Vasanthakumar, as monitoring officer for allotment of shops through lot method. The AG filed the ‘Marina Beach Layout’ map consisting of the details of the blue flag areas and shops to be located and other aspects.
According to the map, four blue flag phases will come up on the beach with one – blue flag phase- I – already established on 25 acres and put to public use in September 2025. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has proposed to establish the blue flag phase-II on 39 acres, phase-III on 23 acres and phase-IV on 35 acres.
The bench recorded that about 121 acres on the beach has specifically been earmarked for these four blue flag areas. The GCC also proposed to permit shops in four blocks between the blue flag phases, restricting the count to only 300 as stressed by the court in the previous hearings. Only 20 shops would be permitted behind the Lighthouse area where blue flag phase-IV is proposed to be created, the bench said.
It noted that the entire stretch of Marina Beach, except the small area of 2 acres where these shops would be permitted, would be free of hawking not only in the blue flag areas but also in those not covered under the blue flag areas.
Reiterating the method of allotment of shops shall be made through ‘lot’ system, the bench appointed former Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir N Paul Vasanthakumar as the monitoring authority for overseeing the process of allotment of shops. He will be assisted by retired principal district judge T Mohan Raj and retired deputy registrar of the Madras High Court R Ranganathan.
The court also directed the GCC to appoint an ad hoc committee headed by its commissioner for conducting the lot.