Marina Beach - Controversies

Controversies

With a length of 13 km, including a 6 km promenade, the Marina is considered the world's second longest urban beach, although there exist in fact several longer beaches, including Praia do Cassino (254 km) in Brazil, Cox's Bazar (120 km) in Bangladesh, Padre Island on the U.S. Gulf Coast, Ninety Mile Beach in Australia and Ninety Mile Beach (88 km) in New Zealand. However, unlike most beaches, Marina is a natural sandy urban beach similar to the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, helping it earn the title.

In December 2001, the Kannagi statue, which was erected in 1968 on the occasion of a World Tamil Conference held in Chennai, was removed for traffic maintenance reason as part of modernisation of the beach, which led to a huge protest and demonstration by the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. When the DMK later came to power, the statue was installed in the same place on 3 June 2006 by the DMK party chief M. Karunanidhi.

On 9 August 2003, an open air stage located 350 ft from the sea on the sands of the Marina called Seerani Arangam, constructed in 1970, which was used by religious groups and political parties to address gatherings, was demolished by the state government in order to modernise the beach. This spot was a place where rallies were held for the freedom movement during the British Raj, and the stage was considered a symbol of the historical events that had taken place in the Marina. This created a great controversy.