CHENNAI: It’s a giant effort, involving years of hard work and crores of rupees, to change the face of the city’s infamous landmark — the Cooum. On Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu government made a humble beginning, by reclaiming a stretch of land on the banks

of the waterway from encroachments and launching works to develop it into a park for public utility.

The roughly one-km stretch of land on the Gandhi-Irwin Road at Egmore, owned by the public works department, was handed over to the Chennai corporation for development of park and walk path for the use of general public.

Unveiling the ambitious Cooum restoration and management project from the banks of the stinking waterway at Egmore, deputy chief minister M K Stalin, who recently led a delegation to Singapore to study its river restoration model, said the initial phase of the clean up work had been estimated to cost Rs 1200 crore.

The initial phase would involve providing sewerage system for town and village panchayats and municipality at a cost of about Rs 200 crore, strengthening the existing sewage system for prevention of sewage overflow into Cooum at a cost of Rs 117 crore and improvement of the river front at a cost of Rs 200 crore. Steps will also been taken for the improvement of 71 tanks in the upstream area falling in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts and continuous dredging of river mouth.

While some of the works would be covered under the IAMWARM project implemented by the PWD and the JNURRM projects carried out by the municipal administration, both working out to the tune of Rs 600 crore, required funds for the remaining works would be finalised soon, he said.

Stating that a proposal had been presented to the Sathya Sai Trust, which took up lining works along the channel of Krishna water project, for funding the Cooum clean up, Stalin said the trust had assured to consider the proposal.

He also exuded confidence that the 72-km-long Cooum would be cleaned up well within a decade, the period taken by Singapore government to restore its much-polluted river, running to a stretch of 12 km.

Close on the heels of the constitution of the Chennai River Water Authority, which would be given statutory powers, the government would also set up an administrative committee, headed by the chief secretary, and a coordination committee to integrate the works of various disciplines and speed up the clean up work. The government would also seek technical assistance from the Public Utilities Board of Singapore, he added.

On the removal of encroachment which would be a major challenge, Stalin said about 9,500 families had encroached upon the river bank and they were already being evacuated under the proposed elevated expressway project. The evacuees would be suitably rehabilitated, he added.

As environmental and social enhancement measures, it is proposed to provide river walk, boating for recreational/tourist/commercial purposes, Cooum park and museum and events such as water sports to generate revenues and maintain interest in the river.