Adyar River

Coordinates: 13°00′49″N 80°15′56″E / 13.01367°N 80.26559°E / 13.01367; 80.26559
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Adyar
Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
Adyar estuary
 • location
Tamil Nadu, India
Length26 mi (42 km)
Basin size204 sq mi (530 km2)
Discharge 
 • locationAdyar, Chennai (Madras)
Adayar River Joining the Bay of Bengal

13°00′49″N 80°15′56″E / 13.01367°N 80.26559°E / 13.01367; 80.26559 The Adyar River, originating near the

Cooum.[1]

Origin and course

Adyar river starts from Malaipattu tank (80.00° longitude and 12.93° latitude) near

Adyar, Chennai.[2][3] Here it forms an estuary, which extends from Adyar Bridge to the sandbar at the edge of the sea, with some small islets in between. The estuary attracts a wide variety of birds. The estuary covering an area of about 120 hectares (300 acres) was made a protected wildlife reserve in 1987.[4]
The river forms a backwater near the mouth, known as the Adyar creek, due to the formation of sand bar at the mouth. This creek is a natural channel which carries tidal water back into the sea.

Geography

Aerial view of the Adyar creek
A view of the Adyar River from the Manapakkam Bridge
Sunset over the river
The Adyar Estuary

The river has varying depth of approximately 0.75 metres (2.5 ft) in its upper reaches and 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) in its lower reaches. The catchment area of the river is 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi). Bed width ranges from 10.5 to 200 metres (34 to 656 ft). It flows for 24 kilometres (15 mi) in the

Northeast monsoon season between September and December. The river is also supplied by surplus water from about 40 ponds.[6][7][8]

The present discharge of the river is 39,000 cu.ft/s whereas the anticipated flood discharge capacity is about 60,000 cubic feet per second. During the floods of 2005, the river had a discharge of 55,000 cubic feet per second.[5]

Ecology

Adyar Estuary and Creek and the Theososphical Society on the Estuary's southern side has been a haven for migratory and resident birds for years. The environmental conditions in the estuary with low salinity, good shelters and high

Chennai Floods
of 2015 and have been reasonably successful.

Landmarks

The Theosophical Society, Anna University, Madras Boat Club, Thenral are prominent institutions located in the banks of Adyar. Adayar river crosses 6 line Outer Ring Road landmark of Royappa nagar And JJ Nagar.

Contamination

See also: Water pollution in India

The river receives a sizeable quantity of sewage from Chennai after reaching

urbanisation have led to severe contamination.[2] Adyar River receives 10% of the untreated sewage being let into the three principle waterways of Chennai daily; the Buckingham Canal and the Cooum River receive 60% and 30%, respectively.[9]

The problem of

groynes to keep the river mouth open for adequate width and prevent inundation during monsoon. In 2011, the Water Resources Department (WRD) proposed to construct groynes to reduce formation of sand bars near the mouth the river.[10]

Cleaning up

In 2012, the state government allotted ₹ 3,000 million towards construction of 337 sewage cleaning systems in the waterways in the city, including 49 locations in the Adyar river. Others include 105 points in Cooum river and 183 locations in the Buckingham Canal.[11]

Bridges

There are several bridges built across the river over the course of time. The Corporation of Chennai maintains about 6 of these bridges.[12]

The Thiru Vi Ka Bridge was constructed at a cost of ₹ 5.8 million and was inaugurated in October 1973.[13] It is a four-laned bridge measuring 312 metres (1,025 ft) long and 19 metres (62 ft) wide. During the time of its inauguration, the bridge had separate lanes for cyclists and footpaths for pedestrians. The bridge was damaged in November 1985 due to a rush of flood water, resulting in the suspension of vehicular traffic over the bridge. It had developed a gaping hole and a portion of the road surface had caved in.[14]

The Elphinstone Bridge was constructed in the 1840s during the time of Lord Elphinstone, who was governor of Madras from 1837 to 1842 and was the first to connect south Madras to Santhome and Mylapore. Before its construction, there were no bridges across the Adyar river except the causeway then known as Marmalong Bridge. Parisals, which were round floats pushed by long poles, were the chief mode of transportation across the river, and there were several makeshift landing places on the banks of the river for carrying goods. Soon, the British found the area between Santhome and the river suitable for building their farmhouses. Further developments during the first half of the 19th century probably necessitated the building of a new bridge.[13] The bridge was still in use during the time of inauguration of the Thiru Vi Ka bridge. The bridge was meant for other, slow-moving traffic across the river.[14] However, the bridge was severely damaged during a cyclone between 1876 and 1878. Today the bridge carries sewer pipelines. It is 11 metres (36 ft) wide and has concrete slabs covering the sewer pipelines running over it. The full width of the bridge is covered with the slabs and either side of the bridge has a flight of stairs, which is used by pedestrians.[13]

In October 2005, a new bridge adjacent to the existing Thiru Vi Ka bridge was proposed as a two-lane facility. However, it was then decided to build it as a three-laned one based on a traffic survey. Construction work began in December 2010. The 16-span bridge, being built at a cost of ₹ 139.6 million, is 333 metres (1,093 ft) long and 11 metres (36 ft) wide. It is being built between the Thiru Vi Ka bridge and the Elphinstone bridge that carries the Chennai Metrowater lines.[14] Although the capacity of the bridge is only 1,450 passenger car unit (PCU), the level of congestion during peak hours is 10,747 PCU—about 7.41 times its capacity.[15]

Encroachments

The banks of the Adyar river flooded often due to uncontrolled and unchecked encroachments. However, ever since the devastating

AIADMK
government, has made sustained efforts, to clean the river, with reasonable success - including cordon of its bank with a dedicated wall, remove encroachments from the Jaffarkhanpet End, till the mouth of the river near the Broken Bridge, along its flood banks, as well as regularly de-silt its sister channels, stormwater inlets and the river itself.

Gallery

  • The Adyar River, c. 1905
    The Adyar River, c. 1905
  • A flooded Adyar river
    A flooded Adyar river

See also

References

  1. ISSN 0971-8257
    . Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  2. ^
    PMID 18253854
    .
  3. PMID 18784895
    .
  4. ^ "Adyar River". National River Conservation Directorate. Ministry of Environment and Forests. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b Session-3 River and Drainage System in CMA
  6. doi:10.1007/s10661-007-9789-9
    .
  7. ^ A. P. Mitra, R. Ramesh (1997). "Anthropogenic forcing on methane efflux from polluted wetlands (Adyar River of Madras city, India),". Ambio. 26: 369–374.
  8. PMID 18814890
    .
  9. ^ Lakshmi, K.; Deepa H Ramakrishnan (29 September 2011). "Untreated sewage pollutes waterways". The Hindu. Chennai: The Hindu. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  10. ^ Lakshmi, K. (3 December 2011). "WRD plans groynes". The Hindu. Chennai: The Hindu. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  11. ^ "நீர்வழி தடங்களை சுத்திகரிக்க ரூ.300 கோடி நிதி: கூவம் ஆற்றில் நீச்சல் சாத்தியமாகும்?". தினமலர் (Dina Malar). Chennai: Dina Malar. 26 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  12. ^ "Departments—Bridges". Corporation of Chennai. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  13. ^ a b c Ramakrishnan, Deepa H. (13 January 2013). "173-year-old Elphinstone Bridge gets a makeover". The Hindu. Chennai: The Hindu. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  14. ^ a b c "Soon, driving over Adyar river to be smooth sailing". The Hindu. Chennai: The Hindu. 20 December 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
  15. ^ "New 3-lane Adyar bridge to ease traffic congestion". The Deccan Chronicle. Chennai: The Deccan Chronicle. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2013.

External links

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