The Chennai-based Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) has done a mapping of settlements along the Buckingham Canal between Cooum and Adyar rivers in a bid to document their present status and encourage the government to explore in situ development options.
The assessment by IRCDUC has come in the wake of recent eviction of families in Govindasamy Nagar and with the government planning to go ahead with the project for the restoration of Buckingham Canal, which has raised concerns of displacement of large number of families.
The organisation has mapped 34 settlements that have around 10,000 families. Almost all these settlements have existed for four to five decades. Some areas like Mattan Kuppam has existed for around two centuries, the organisation said. The data compiled has been submitted to Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board.
