Just eight years after 2015, the terrifying scenes have been again, not in a nightmare, however for actual: inundated properties; folks rescued by boats; floating vehicles; extended energy cuts; residents bearing mounting monetary losses. With Cyclone Michaung, which paradoxically didn’t even make landfall in Chennai, town was once more engulfed by floodwaters. Though classes from the previous stood us in good stead in limiting, to a nice extent, the lack of treasured lives, the opposite losses are practically incalculable. In early December, the everyday patterns of flooding and town’s vulnerabilities got here to the fore, and the fault traces have been as apparent because the pressing want to deal with the disaster.
Another fixed within the 2015 and 2023 floods was the closure of the airport, one runway of which has been constructed over the Adyar. Not surprisingly, it did spur discussions on what could come to cross if an airport is constructed on a huge wetland, because the second airport at Parandur is supposed to. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence gave the positioning clearance for this mission, and the State authorities has accorded the executive sanction.
There are convincing arguments to make out the case that the Chennai airport will quickly surpass its capability for passenger visitors, and it has already fallen behind in freight visitors. But the concern of flooding in Chennai, and its neighbouring areas, looms giant if wetlands are to be constructed over. Of the 5,746.18 acres of land on which the Parandur airport is to be constructed, 2,682.62 acres includes wetlands.
Recipe for catastrophe
Environmental specialists name this mission a recipe for catastrophe and say that when it’s constructed, there may be a excessive risk of town witnessing a comparable or worse disaster.
G. Sundarrajan, of Poovulagin Nanbargal, says, “While unplanned water release from the Chembarambakkam Lake had a disastrous effect on Chennai eight years ago, we witnessed a similar situation this time owing to an array of factors — from missing storm-water drain links to uncontrolled urbanisation in the city.”
If the Pallikaranai marshlands and the Velachery Lake had not been encroached upon, the southern elements of town won’t have been ravaged as a lot, he argues. “I would say that these wetlands at Parandur certainly contribute to the lowering of the intensity of flooding in the Chennai region. Places like Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, and Thoothukudi cannot be viewed independently and the impact of monsoon and flooding has a definite ripple effect on the neighbouring districts,” he says.
There are round 4,100 waterbodies in and round Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, and Tiruvallur. While a few of them are in good condition, some others have dried up or encroached upon and a few want desilting. If they’re cleaned, deepened and restored to their capability, they’ll retailer a loads of extra water, he provides. “The crucial Kamban canal in the Parandur region links over 80 waterbodies, and disrupting it will significantly reduce the watershed area,” Mr. Sundarrajan provides.
Acknowledging the issues, the State authorities shaped a hydrogeological committee some months in the past. It is trying into learn how to handle these issues and learn how to construct the airport with out affecting the waterbodies. The report is sort of prepared, and can be submitted to the federal government shortly. “We are looking into everything — from preserving the channels and waterbodies to deepening them — and we will also take steps to prevent flooding in future,” says a supply.
‘Crucial for the State’s financial system’
This airport is essential not just for town but in addition for the State as it’ll have a constructive financial affect, officers argue. If the State authorities lets go of this chance, it is probably not potential to search out giant land parcels to construct one other airport for the longer term wants, sources say. “We could have had such a worldclass facility more than a decade ago, had the plan to build an airport at Sriperumbudur materialised. The city needs such an airport with excellent connectivity — it will be a great boost to our economy and push our rankings up. More importantly, the present airport is choking and needs better facilities and space to handle future traffic,” one other supply says.
The metropolis airport has been pushed behind Bengaluru and Hyderabad over time and has misplaced the celebrated title of the gateway to south India. From being the third busiest airport, it now occupies the sixth spot. It has misplaced when it comes to connectivity to extra cities internationally. Passenger visitors information for November present Chennai stands behind even the Kolkata airport. While the Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports recorded 30.7 lakh and 20.three lakh passengers, Chennai reported solely 17.42 lakh passengers in November. In the final decade, the passenger visitors has grown phenomenally at each the Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.
“We cannot expand this airport and keep modernising it beyond this point there are physical limitations. We need more bays, better infrastructure, and it cannot be done with the existing space. The city is in need of another large facility,” says an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The demand has been that the federal government discover one other website, one that won’t endanger water sources. But that’s simpler mentioned than carried out. Officials say a variety of components have been thought of earlier than Parandur was chosen. The different websites which have been earlier thought of — resembling Padalam, Pannur, and Tiruporur — have a number of restrictions on flight operations. “If we are to build an airport without affecting any of the waterbodies, we may have to travel all the way to Cuddalore (about 175 km away),” the supply says.Both Tiruporur and Padalam would have restrictions on flight operations due to their proximity to the Tambaram Local Flying Area, based on the Government Order. Further, the Chengalpet Firing Range is positioned northeast of Padalam and west of Tiruporur. This aside, simply 5 nautical miles south of Tiruporur is the Kalpakkam nuclear energy plant. Finally, when Pannur and Parandur have been shortlisted, Pannur had quite a few high-tension electrical towers and industries close to the positioning. Also, extra land needed to be acquired at Pannur than at Parandur. “More importantly, the runway orientation was apt at Parandur and wouldn’t be in conflict with the traffic at the Meenambakkam airport,” a supply mentioned.
The hydrogeological report has been drafted to resolve the problems flagged by the residents of Parandur in addition to environmentalists, sources say.
Plans for waterbodies
The Water Resources Department, whose representatives are on the high-level committee constituted to arrange the report, has made suggestions and prompt different plans for ayacut areas and waterbodies and channels that could be affected. Besides different routes for floodwater drainage, it has sought to enhance the capability of the waterbodies. This could compensate for the lack of a few tanks. Moreover, a main drain from the Palar anicut could should be rerouted. The giant waterbodies — resembling these at Parandur, Thodur, and Maduramangalam — could be deepened to extend their capability. The channels operating on the mission website could be rerouted and linked to the waterbodies. For occasion, the channels linked to the Sriperumbudur Lake could be realigned alongside the boundary of the proposed airport. The Kamban canal, which originates in Vellore district and feeds many tanks en route earlier than becoming a member of the Sriperumbudur Lake, may also be rerouted.
“But one of the main issues in our system is that seldom do things function and take shape as planned on paper,” says Arun Krishnamurthy, founding father of Environmentalist Foundation of India. “The technicalities in the report may suggest mitigation measures to prevent flooding in and around Parandur and Chennai city, but the ground reality and field dynamism are very different when such massive projects are developed. Can we prevent encroachments and violations that most certainly are to happen,” he asks.
If the federal government is considering when it comes to economical rating and pushing town’s picture up, one of many methods is to decentralise the economical development, he says. “Why can’t we think of simultaneously developing Tiruchi or Madurai on a par [with Chennai]? Because if this project ends up exacerbating flooding, as we fear, won’t companies have second thoughts about investing here? Otherwise, we at least need to have an extensive and meticulous plan to redesign the whole city to avoid flooding,” he provides.
Even if mitigation measures are taken within the Parandur area, the first concern is the rampant encroachments that may mushroom, Mr. Sundarrajan says. The authorities has envisaged it as an aero metropolis or aero hub. In that case, quite a few lodges and malls are more likely to come up. “Will someone be able to vouch that these establishments will not violate, encroach upon, and shrink the watershed area,” he asks. Experts say that as a substitute of buying land close to Parandur and utilising the wetlands, the best state of affairs can be to increase the prevailing airport additional and shift the Officers Training Academy (OTA) to a different location. “It may certainly be faster and feasible to shift the OTA to another location and expand the present airport,” Mr. Sundarrajan provides. But sources within the authorities say it’s a very advanced problem to maneuver the OTA to a different location, and it isn’t solely within the arms of the State authorities.
Water-sensitive city design
If the mission is to be carried out at Parandur ultimately, will probably be vital to construct the airport with water-sensitive city design, say specialists.
Kurian Joseph, an environmental engineer and director of the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management, Anna University, says, “Not just for the airport alone, it is highly important to plan buildings even around the airport with water-sensitive urban designs, which will ensure that there is a minimal impact on the environment.”
Another problem is how an air passenger will commute to this distant website. If there may be one facet of the current airport that everybody could be glad about, it’s its simple accessibility and site inside the metropolis. An airport at Parandur could be a close to two-hour journey for passengers from the prevailing airport. Though the brand new airport website is near the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway, there should be a mass fast transit system for ferrying passengers rapidly to Parandur. The State authorities has drawn up plans to function Chennai Metro Rail to Parandur by extending the section II mission line from Poonamallee to a size of 50 km. and hyperlink it to the brand new airport website. But it takes at the least a few years to ascertain a Metro Rail line. Unless the federal government takes it up concurrently, it might be an exasperating and costly journey for passengers to Parandur.
Sivasubramaniam Jayaraman, nationwide lead, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, says, “Chennai is at the right stage where the Third Master Plan and Comprehensive Mobility Plan are getting ready and incorporating ways to link transport hubs becomes essential to ease mobility for passengers. While having a Chennai Metro Rail system is important, stakeholders like airlines and airport operator must tie up, allowing passengers to check in their baggage at their nearest station so that the travel is smooth. This apart, there must be excellent road connectivity and dedicated bus services.”
The excessive occasions of 2015 and 2023 have confirmed that local weather variability may be imminent, inevitable, and excessive. So it’s important to focus not simply on establishing a resilient airport but in addition on investing in a water-sensitive city design within the aero hub metropolis deliberate on the greenfield airport website.
Parandur is a large-scale and long-term funding — and from transport to environmental points, the lengthy street forward is full of myriad challenges to which there aren’t any easy options.
(With inputs from Ok. Lakshmi).