As portion of the Cooum river falling inside the city limits is free of encroachments, the Water Resources Department has started preliminary work to clean the waterway.
The Department has engaged machinery to clear vegetation in the stretch between Chetpet and Napier bridges. The project to desilt and widen the river under the Cooum River Eco-Restoration project is awaiting nod from the State government.
Meanwhile, the Department is preparing to desilt the river by removing the thick vegetation in various stretches. According to official sources, most of the encroachments along the 9-km stretch between Chetpet and Napier bridge has been cleared except for two or three locations, including Chintadripet. Of the nearly 14,260 encroachments identified in the river, about 8,000 structures have been removed so far. The river’s width varies from 70 metres to 250 metres in city limits. Sources said work is also on to build the bund to a height of two metres in portions where encroachments have been cleared.
The Department is already clearing vegetation in places such as Spurtank Road and East Namasivayapuram near Choolaimedu bridge. There are plans to complete the drive to remove encroachments in the city limits by March, sources said.
This is to facilitate resumption of work on the long-pending elevated corridor between Chennai port and Maduravoyal.
In a bid to ensure better flood carrying capacity of the river, the project envisages desilting of river bed and excavating nearly 8.27 lakh cubic metres of silt. While a portion of silt removed would be used along the river, the remaining silt would be transported to nearby dumpyards, sources added.