The Marina beach of Chennai

S Balakrishnan *

As yet another Valentine’s Day passed by (without any proposal either way), I longingly remembered the Marina Beach, a hotspot for lovers of Chennai. Madras (Chennai) and Marina go hand-in-hand together; you can’t separate one from the other. As you hear Madras, you can’t help visualizing the long sandy Marina with thrashing waves and throbbing with visitors.

It is the pride of not only Chennai or Tamil Nadu but of India, because it is claimed to be the ‘second longest beach of its kind’ in the world (though this is disputed by some) and the longest beach in India (thankfully not disputed by anyone)! And it is right in the urban area.

However, because Marina is a natural sandy urban beach, similar to Brazil’s Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, maybe it deserves this fame. Well, I have not visited all the famous beaches around the world, not to speak of the naughty beaches of even Goa, so I can’t vouch for it.

Marina Beach is part of Tamil Nadu’s long shore (1076 km) along the Bay of Bengal and forms part of the famed Coromandel Coastline on India’s eastern border. The Marina extends to a length of 13 kms up to Besant Nagar locality of Chennai, but what the common people perceive as Marina Beach could be the 3 km stretch between the mouths of Coovum River in the north and Adyar River in the south.

This is the most preferred part of Marina as it is easily accessible by road and rail, with a Metro station to come up soon. It is so wide that its average width itself is 300 m (almost 1000 ft), with its widest stretch measuring a magnificent 1,434 ft.!

The arterial Beach Road (now renamed Kamarajar Road) stretches along the Marina Beach with stately British-period buildings facing the beach. This road is the venue for Republic and Independence Day parades.

These include the Madras University (1857) and its beautiful Senate House, Chepauk Palace of the Nawabs, PWD office, Presidency College (1840), Queen Mary’s Women’s College (1914), Vivekanandar House (originally Ice House where imported ice was stored, 1842), DGP office, and All India Radio. The Chepauk cricket stadium is also close-by.

A series of statues of political leaders and literary figures decorate the beach’s promenade. The Triumph of Labour and Gandhi leading the Dandi March are famous. Oh, yes, an ugly triangle-shaped lighthouse also stands here. I would have preferred the traditional cylindrical design but nobody asked for my valued opinion.

The Santhome Cathedral Bascilica is on the beach, erected over the tomb of Apostle St. Thomas, martyred in Madras in 78 AD. While the Church is on the south side of beach, modern tombs have come up on the northern side of the beach, that of four former Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, thus shrinking the beach considerably.

They all belong to the so-called Dravidian parties of DMK and AIADMK – two each as their prized catch. The beach front has become a prestigious burial place for political leaders. At this rate, I am afraid, Marina would become a graveyard !

Being a lazy bird, I had never witnessed sunrise from Marina for which it is a wonderful point. To be frank, it is years since I visited it even in the evening. Of course, it was closed during the Covid pandemic but now open. The beach is usually thronged in the evenings by thousands of people; the number increases manifold during weekends/holidays and the vexatious summer months when people rush there to enjoy the cool breeze.

Oh, what a relief ! Marina is the most crowded on ‘Kaanum Pongal’ day in January (16/17) when more than a lakh gather on the sands! With such a footfall and consequent cleanliness problem, modern machines have been deployed to regularly sift and clean the sand. A row of shops dot the sands selling shell items, knick knacks and edibles, mostly fried fish, bajji, etc.

Then there are vendors on foot selling, for what Marina is famous, the sundal (boiled & seasoned grams), ‘murukku’ snack, peanut, sliced & spiced mango, ice cream, jasmine flower, roasted sweet corn, etc., etc. You can fill your lungs with fresh air and your stomach with all these items ! Efforts are on to make Marina wheelchair-friendly till the point where the waves can gently touch the wheelchair.

Recently, a temporary effort was made and the differently-abled persons on wheelchair were so overjoyed. The beach offers pony ride, merry-go-rounds, balloon shooting (had it been included in the Olympics I would have won a gold medal for India), and other fun activities.

Marina is one of the sites where the huge Vinayak Chathurthi statues are immersed and the water gets polluted. For Vinayak’s sake, can’t this practice be stopped ! This is an alien culture introduced in Tamil Nadu where, traditionally, palm-sized clay idols were worshipped at homes only and then immersed without any fanfare.

But swimming in the sea here is prohibited as it is dangerous because of the undercurrents. This is more so with a sunken ship SS Damatis a few hundred meters off the Marina in 1966 due to a cyclone. Yet, adventurous youth foolishly keep losing their lives here despite horse-mounted patrol police.

For fish lovers, it is a sight to watch fishermen lug in their nets with prized catch; their colony is part of the beach. You can observe them mending their nets and boats. Marina is open 24 hours but better avoid visiting after 9 or 10 pm. No fee is charged. (Have I given a nasty idea to the fund-starved State Govt.?)

The word ‘marina’ means a specially designed harbour with moorings for pleasure yachts and small boats and not ships, with facilities for supplies & repair. Marina means ‘coast’ or ‘shore’ and the word is found in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other European languages, derived from the Latin ‘marinus’ (of the sea).

The name ‘Madras Marina’ was given in 1884 by Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff who was Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886; the same year he ordered construction of the promenade. He proudly mentions in a letter, “We have greatly benefited Madras by turning the rather dismal beach of five years ago into one of the most beautiful promenades in the world.” He was struck by the location during an earlier visit in the late 1870s and hence this beautification effort.

When the British East India Company built a fort (Fort St. George) and factory (trading post) in 1639–40 in Chennai, the sea was quite close to the fort; in fact, waves were washing the ramparts of the fort. When a harbor was built, it caused sand accretion to the south of these two structures; the sea withdrew to a distance of 2.5km from the fort, leaving a vast stretch of sand.

The beginning for a proper port (Madras Port) got off with the construction of an 1100 ft. long pier in 1861. With further developments in the port, the area south of it got accreted significantly, forming the present day’s beach; wave breakers laid while constructing the harbor aggravated the situation.

It is estimated that annually the beach extends by 40 sq.m. due to progradation. On the other hand, the northern side of the port continues to face severe erosion. The north-drifting current, on its part, widened the beach to its present extent.

The sands of Marina used to be the venue for mass rallies and political meetings. It has a spot named in 1908 after Bal Gangadhar Tilak as ‘Tilakar thidal’ (ground) from where Gandhiji, Tilak, Netaji, etc., used to address during independence struggle.