Police station, encroachments on Thamaraikkeni lake must be removed fully: Madras HC

CHENNAI: The newly constructed Semmencherry police station and all other encroachments in Thamaraikkeni lake in Sholinganallur must be removed to fully restore the shrinking lake, said IIT-M before Madras High Court on Monday.

Mere razing of the new police station built may not help to restore the waterbody in view of ‘high level’ of encroachments within the tank boundary. “Total restoration appears to be nearly impossible without mercilessly removing all public and private infrastructure so that the sanctity of the water line boundary could be preserved, recovered, and restored in total,” the report filed by the IIT team said.

The report was filed as directed by the court on a PIL moved by Arappor Iyakkam. During the hearing, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanijb Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, “... A decisive step needs to be taken at this stage to define the future course of action.”