Residents want CMDA to lift halt on building permissions around Pallikaranai marsh

Residents’ groups in the Sholinganallur Assembly constituency urged the State government to withdraw the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA)’s circular that halted all approvals or planning or building permits within one kilometre of the Pallikaranai marshland.

The appeal comes after an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Zone, directing authorities not to grant approvals or permissions for constructions within the Ramsar site and its one-kilometre influence zone, after it takes suo motu cognisance of a report on road-laying inside the Perumbakkam marshland.

Following the Tribunal’s direction, the CMDA issued a circular, dated October 3, stating that no further approvals or permissions are to be granted within the Ramsar site boundary and its influence area.

‘Caused uncertainty’

The Confederation of Sholinganallur Constituency Residents’ Welfare Association on Wednesday said that the circular caused uncertainty for residents in areas around the Pallikaranai marshland, including Pallikaranai, Okkiyam Thuraipakkam, Perumbakkam, Perungudi, Seevaram, Sholinganallur, and Injambakkam.

S. Swaminthan, a secretary of the confederation, said that these neighbourhoods developed over the past two decades, along with the growth of the IT Corridor, and now have a large middle-class population.

“Many people buy plots in this prime location because major transport corridors such as OMR, the 200 Feet Radial Road, the Tambaram-Velachery Main Road, and the Sholinganallur-Medavakkam Road run through this region, and the Chennai Metro Rail work is also in progress. They now fear that they may not be able to develop any structure on these plots,” he says.

He adds that authorities can restrict the building height, such as allowing up to five floors, so that high-rises by large companies do not come up, while smaller individual apartments could be constructed.

S. Gomathinayagam, treasurer of the group, said that the CMDA circular must be withdrawn and action should target only encroachments within the marshland. He appealed for State government intervention.

V. Parthiban, general secretary of the association, added that just as the widening of Okkiyam Madavu reduced flooding, two more water channels could be built from the marshland to the Madavu in order to mitigate inundation.

G. Prakash, member secretary of the CMDA, apologised for not issuing a public clarification about the circular. He said the halt on permissions was only temporary.

“Once the notification on the Ramsar site and its zone of influence is notified by the appropriate authority, and the Integrated Management Plan is in place, then CMDA would follow the due procedures and issue the related planning permissions,” he added.