There is a disturbing lack of familiarity of our politicians and planners with the elegance, economies and advantages of developing our waterways for transportation. Developed countries like Germany and the US have succeeded in preserving their waterways clean even in crowded metros. How beautifully Chicago exploits its God-given river passing through the metro! Unending streams of tourists are taken along the river; well-informed guides provide interesting descriptions of the history of dozens of buildings on either side with such verve and passion! The cruise takes you through an interesting adjustment of the differing levels of the lake and the river through a lock. All these are of course money spinners!

Hardly five decades ago, waterways criss-crossing Chennai – the Adayar and Cooum rivers and the Buckingham Canal, a few smaller canal systems and a number of lakes in the suburbs-were precious God-given gifts that were put to good use. There were even cheap boat rides to Mahabalipuram by the Buckingham Canal!

Chief minister Karunanidhi dreamt of restoring Cooum for navigation. In the 1970s he did take the initiative of cleaning up this river system. But the raping of these systems continued unabated with thoughtless sewage and industrial waste waters let into these river systems (including by our municipalities). The mass rapid transport system almost destroyed the Buckingham Canal as a possible waterway.

The demands of the road system for commuting are resulting in the plan to construct an elevated high-speed corridor along almost all the river criss-crossing the metro. Why the humungous cost, of over Rs. 5000 crore, supplemented by additional resources from multilateral funding agencies, could not be spent to developing these river systems into clean, navigable waterways? These will help preserve the greenery along the waterways, be far less polluting and thus environmentally so friendly as also provide for the citizens a cheap mode of travel. Their viability can be reinforced by the example of endless streams of boat cruises along the Rhine River in crowed German cities like Frankfurt. Adayar river has already lost its chance for navigation by the grant of permission for constructing the airport runway over the river. The proposed hi-speed corridor is bound to kill any future possibility of the existing river system cleaned up for navigation.

Sadly, such decisions are taken without wide consultations with the public and experts and result from the whims and fancies of politicians in power and a few bureaucrats. The damage caused will be permanent and irreversible.

Once the elegance of such a waterway is appreciated, the concept can be extended to run cruises along the sea coast from Chennai to Puducherry. A booming middle class is already familiar with the pleasures offered by such cruises through expensive pleasure trips in Singapore, Malaysia… It should certainly be willing to spend on such cruises nearer home and a number of companies may be willing to offer these.

In the 1970s the government destroyed the elegance and beauty of the Foreshore Estate by constructing slum tenements at Santhome. These have permanently damaged the long stretch of the seafront from the lighthouse for several kilometers to the south. Tamil Nadu has scant regard for the coastal zone restrictions that prohibit any construction upto 500 metres from the seashore. The high speed corridor proposed along the coast from Triplicane to Adayar is bound to offend CZR norms. We urge caution and rethink on this large project.

We re-state preference for a mass transit rail system underground. It is expensive; but this will not cause damage to nature's few remaining gifts. E Sreedharan has demonstrated the effectiveness of this for the much larger metro of Delhi.