Police station on Chennai waterbody: Madras High Court seeks original master plan from CMDA

The Madras High Court on Thursday (August 14, 2025) directed Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to submit before the court, by next week, the original master plan related to the locality around the Tamaraikani tank at Shozhinganallur in Chennai, to determine whether the Semmenchery police station had been constructed on the waterbody or not.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan made it clear that they would not permit the police station building, which had not been inaugurated since 2019 due to interim orders passed by the court, to become operational if it was found to have been constructed on the waterbody or even on the catchment areas around it.

The judges called for the master plan during the hearing of a 2019 public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption organisation represented by its managing trustee Jayaram Venkatesan. The petitioner organisation had complained to the court about the State having constructed the police station on a sprawling waterbody in the city.

In April 2021, a Bench led by the then Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee had ordered for a detailed study by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) faculty to find out whether the police station and other establishments had encroached upon the water body as claimed by the petitioner organisation. Accordingly, the professors from the department of civil engineering took up the task.

The experts found that Tamaraikani tank was part of Periya Eri, which was a mosaic of tanks also consisting of Valaleri tank and Velalkani tank. Tamaraikani tank was originally spread over 13.47 hectare as per the Public Works Department’s tank memoir and it had been irrigating around 250 acres. However, now, there had been large-scale encroachment by private and government institutions.

“There had been blatant and complete encroachment within the entire extent of Periya Eri… The encroachment is nearly complete on the middle portion, while the encroachment is nearly 60% to 70% on the southern side. On the northern side, in the Thamaraikani tank, the encroachment is by a Tangedco electricity sub-station and the new Semmenchery police station,” the faculty members told the court.

“For any meaningful and significant hydrological impact, and complete restoration of the waterbody, the removal of encroachments should be in total and without any exceptions,” the faculty members opined. It was after the receipt of their report, the court ordered that the police station should not be made functional until further orders and also prohibited construction of any new buildings on the waterbody.