Chennai: The Madras High Court had recently suggested the Greater Chennai Corporation to go ahead with the Marina beach beautification drive which will give a complete makeover to the Loop Road.
Under this project, the Loop Road will be expanded to create a new cycling track and construct other amenities. The fishermen who have been using this road for their livelihood by selling fish, have been asked to relocate.
The Marina Loop Road is a 2.5 kilometre stretch that starts from the Light House and goes till Foreshore Estate bus stand. It covers a total of seven fishermen hamlets like Nochi Kuppam, Dooming Kuppam, Nochi Nagar, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Mullai Managar, Srinivasapuram and Nambikkai Nagar.
With fishermen living here for many years, the Loop Road is used by the fish vendors to sell their daily catch. Fishermen say that Loop Road was just an ordinary road initially where traffic was not allowed but slowly it became a cement road and traffic started plying through the stretch on regular basis.
”This was not a regular road earlier and we used it as a connecting stretch to the slum. The people of the slum also used the road as a market to sell fishes but suddenly, one day the Corporation said that they would allow vehicles here to ease traffic congestion on the Santhome High Road. Slowly it became a permanent road and it was widened a lot which has affected our livelihood,” says Rani, a fish vendor.
She says that ever since the road became an improtant stretch, their sales too were affected. ”Our sales are not as good as it were before this road came into prominence. We are already battling for survival and this beautification drive comes as a shocker to us as we are asked to move to a nearby place, where the government has said that they would build a market. We have been using this stretch as our own and how can we give up our place and shift to a new place?,” asks Vincent a fish vendor.
Fish vendors say that if the Corporation wants to expand the road for the sake of beautification, they can very well use the Santhome High Road and leave Loop Road as it is. ”Beautification lies in co-existing and sacrificing something for the sake of development cannot be accepted. The real beauty of a beach lies in the catamarans and vendors selling fish and if this is compromised for the sake of beautification we cannot really call that beautiful,” says Ashok, a regular customer.
Officials said they would consider all aspects while implementing the project.