A Central Minister, T.R. Baalu, recently announced that the Government plans to nationalise the Buckingham Canal and make it a navigable waterway once more. An excellent idea, indeed, and one to be welcomed. However, like many government plans, it may prove well nigh impossible to implement, for on the ground the 650 km canal has practically ceased to exist as one canal, the stretch through Chennai being totally unnavigable.

This is what we’ve been doing to the Buckingham Canal. Can we then restore it?

The Government plans to allocate Rs. 500 crore to de-silt the waterway, dredge it up to a depth of two metres and make it navigable once again by introducing barges for transportation primarily of rice and firewood. This is not a new plan and time and again several such intentions have been aired only to be put on the shelf. The same plan was announced in 2002 and there was no action after that.

Even in 2002, the same questions had been asked about the feasibility of the plan – all of them concerning the stretch within Chennai city limits. This 10- kilometre stretch was also navigable at one time till a cyclone in the 1960s extensively damaged its banks. Continued settlement of slum-dwellers and the connecting of all city drains into the waterway ensured that it soon became a gutter. The Canal in its course outside the city, however, remained a vibrant water-body.

By the 1980s, with the city portion becoming a dry bay, it was decided that the Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) would run along the river bed. It was in vain that those who were concerned with stormwater drains in the city pointed out that the Canal played an important role during the monsoons. All this was overlooked and pillars that were meant to be on its banks were erected on the Canal bed in several areas and the MRTS has, since, become a reality. The areas on both sides of the Canal in the city have ever since been prone to flooding.

The erection of the MRTS pillars offers no real hope of restoring the Canal. The waterway is now cut across in some places by the MRTS route and in many places the MRTS runs over the waterway itself. This has naturally constricted the space available for the water to flow and any widening or dredging will naturally be hampered by the structures. It is a classic example of various Government bodies working independently of each other, with no holistic idea on what is to be done.

At this point in time, the real beneficiaries of the proposed nationalisation and improvement scheme will be the sections of the Canal that are outside city limits. The 2002 plan made no bones about this and it was decided that the Canal network would connect to the road system within the city which meant, therefore, that the portion of the Canal within city limits would remain untouched. Is this what the Government plans to offer the citizens of Chennai?