According to the records available with the state public department, efforts to restore the waterway first began back in 1872 under the British. The earliest recorded proposal was mooted in 1890.
After Independence, C. N. Annadurai launched a Cooum Improvement Scheme at a cost of ₹ 19 million in September 1967, six months after the DMK came to power for the first time in the state, when M. Karunanidhi was PWD minister.
The project comprised installation of a regulator and a sand pump at the river mouth, protecting the sides of the river with cement concrete slabs from the Chetput bridge to the Napier Bridge, provision of a walkway on either side of the river, removal of encroachments on the banks of the river and, more importantly, the diversion of sewage.
In addition, seven boat jetties were built.
In February 1973, when Karunanidhi was chief minister, he launched a pleasure boat service at a cost of ₹ 22 million, and roving boats, powered boats and paddle boats were made available at a nominal charge.
However, the efforts went futile when the sand pump developed snags.
the jetties built for the purpose still dot the riverfront.
In 1996, the DMK government made another bid—this time covering all important watercourses, including the Buckingham Canal and the Adyar.
This resulted in the implementation of the ₹ 12,000-million Chennai City River Conservation Project (CCRCP) in January 2001, which was substantially supported by the Union Environment and Forests Ministry.
This time, the new project aimed at arresting the sewage outfalls and strengthening the sewer network.
However, this too did not yield the desired results since the project did not cover Tiruvallur district, which accounts for 54 kilometres (34 mi) of the river stretch.
in May 2006, the eco-restoration of the Cooum again came to the fore. To facilitate the implementation of the project, the Chennai River Authority, headed by the Deputy Chief Minister, was formed in December 2009 to clean up the entire stretch of the river within 10 years.
This aimed at coordinating the implementation of various projects.
In 2010, the Tamil Nadu government signed an MoU with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SEC), a Singapore agency for the restoration project. The agency prepared a preliminary report after discussions with various stake holders of the project including Chennai Corporation, municipal administrations, Metrowater, Pollution Control Board, Slum Clearance Board and the public works department.
There is currently the World Bank–funded Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water Bodies Restoration and Management Project to clean up the river, under which the upper reaches of the river are proposed to be covered.
The World Bank has approved ₹ 224.1 million for the Cooum restoration project towards development of its irrigation potential.
Improving the irrigation efficiency of Cooum upstream is one of the main objectives of the project. The upper region of the river, mainly Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur districts, will be benefiting from this special fund.
A team from Chennai has visited San Antonio in Texas to see how they successfully did the clean-up of a polluted river.
( The team comprised former Deputy Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, former Chennai Mayor M. Subramaniam and other senior officers. )
One of the city's dream projects was to clean up this river on or before 2020.
The initiative was been taken up by the Central and State governments to clean up the river and rediscover the pleasures of traditional boat racing. The Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT) asked the Chennai Corporation to chalk out an action plan to remove construction debris dumped on the banks of the river.
The Water Resources Department (WRD) started flushing a 30-kilometre (19 mi) stretch of the Cooum in December 2010, initially discharging about 5.7 cubic metres per second (200 cu ft/s) of surplus water from the Poondi reservoir into the river.
In September 2011, the WRD began cleaning the river at a cost of ₹ 10.2 million
In 2012, the government allotted ₹ 3,000 million towards construction of 337 sewage cleaning systems in the waterways in the city, including 105 locations in the Cooum river. Others include 49 points in Adyar river and 183 locations in the Buckingham Canal.
Key aspects of the Cooum river eco-restoration plan includes 11 maintenance ways of 9.6 km, 22 walkways of 24 km, and 17 cycle tracks of 19 km, in addition to 24 parks and riverfront vegetation. The total budget for the eco-restoration is ₹ 19,340 million.
As part of the eco-restoration, in July 2018, the corporation began work on the 1.5-km nature trail between the College Road bridge in Nungambakkam and the Munroe bridge in Chetput. Modelled on the San Antonio River Walk in the United States, the trail is being built in two phases at a cost of ₹ 98.2 million and includes a butterfly park in a 5000 square meter area.
2025 updates
Once clogged with garbage and debris, the Cooum river bunds ..
Read more at:
http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/124031884.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst