Heritage & History

Buckingham Canal, Chennai: History, What Remains, Revival Plans

Dug from 1806 and finished as famine relief, the Buckingham Canal now runs as a choked drain under the MRTS. Here is its history and where restoration stands.

19 October 2026

Chennai FalconMr. Parthasarathy aka Chennai Falcon is passionate about…

Updated 2026-10-29, 2:05 AM

Buckingham Canal: Chennai's lost waterway

The Buckingham Canal is a roughly 420 km saltwater channel that runs parallel to the coast from Peddaganjam in Andhra Pradesh to Marakkanam south of Chennai, and the city stretch is now treated mainly as a drain. Inside Chennai it is the long, often stagnant cut you see under the MRTS between Chintadripet and Velachery, and its revival has been announced, costed and stalled several times in the last decade.

What follows is how the canal was built, what is left of it in the city, and where the restoration plans actually stand in October 2026.

Why it was dug

The canal began as a private venture. According to a history published in Madras Musings, a concession for a navigable channel north from Madras was offered in 1801, and Basil Cochrane finished the Madras to Ennore section in 1806. That stretch, about 11 miles long, was known as Cochrane’s Canal and was soon extended to Pulicat Lake. Cochrane held it until his lease lapsed, and the government took it over in 1847.

The bigger push came with famine. During the famine years of the late 1870s, the canal was extended north to the Pennar river as relief work, and the link canal joining the Cooum and the Adyar inside Madras was dug in 1877. It reached Peddaganjam, its northern limit, in 1878, and Marakkanam, its southern limit, in 1882, the year it was renamed the Buckingham Canal. Locks, flood gates and diversion channels followed, and by 1900 the whole line was navigable. The same account gives about 257 km in Andhra Pradesh and 163 km in Tamil Nadu.

Boats once brought goods into the city. A recent history of Kalvi Varu Street in Mylapore traces that street’s name to Canal Wharf Street. There were wharves near the old Hamilton Bridge, now named after B.R. Ambedkar, and at Kutchery Road, and firewood was unloaded at a godown where Citi Centre stands today. The government sanctioned money to strengthen these wharves in 1962, and the work was declared complete in 1970.

What remains in the city

Within Chennai the canal splits into three parts: the North canal running to Ennore, the roughly 8 km Cooum to Adyar link through central Chennai, and the South canal heading towards Muttukadu and beyond. The central stretch is the one most residents know, because the MRTS was built along and over it.

The cost of that has been capacity. Citizen Matters reported that the canal once carried 5,600 cusecs at its peak and now carries about 2,850, with the MRTS named as the largest encroachment. Because the channel runs so close to the sea, deepening it risks salt water intrusion, so widening is the only practical way to restore flow. The same report cites a 2021 CAG audit that found 242.73 million litres of untreated sewage a day being let into the canal and other city water bodies, and notes construction debris dumped near Sholinganallur and Pallikaranai, which blocks flow and worsens flooding in south Chennai.

The traces are easy to spot: the street name in Mylapore and the long strip of water beside the Kotturpuram and Thiruvanmiyur MRTS stations. No wharves or boats remain.

Restoration plans and their status

Court order, September 2022: the Madras High Court directed the state to mark the canal’s boundaries within six months and clear encroachments within a year, leaving MRTS pillars, flyovers and bridges alone (DT Next).
Project report, October 2023: the Water Resources Department (WRD) submitted a plan costing ₹1,696.5 crore, split between the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT) and WRD.
Boundary work: the CRRT project page lists a sanctioned ₹1,281.88 crore for the canal, its drains and the major drains of the Adyar and Cooum, with WRD and the Greater Chennai Corporation carrying out a DGPS boundary survey and laying boundary stones.
November 2024: Citizen Matters reported the previous government had dropped restoration in the Chepauk-Triplicane and Mylapore stretches for lack of funds.
June 2026: Swarajya reported that the Centre gave in-principle approval for ₹7,500 crore under its Urban Challenge Fund for the first phase of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s urban transformation mission, with the Cooum, Adyar and Buckingham Canal named as the flagship. The state has said it wants visible results within five years. Project reports are to be sent to the Centre in stages.

On the navigation side, the canal is part of National Waterway 4, which was declared on 25 November 2008. The Inland Waterways Authority of India lists the Buckingham Canal among later phases of NW-4, and a 2010 IWAI study, as reported by Citizen Matters, judged the Chennai stretch unviable for navigation. In practice, any revival in the city is about flood carrying capacity and clean water, not boats.

Quick answers

How long is the Buckingham Canal?

About 420 km in all, of which roughly 163 km lies in Tamil Nadu, according to a Madras Musings history. News reports give slightly different totals depending on the end points used.

Who looks after it in Chennai?

The Water Resources Department is the custodian. The CRRT coordinates restoration funding, and the Greater Chennai Corporation works on drains and boundary marking.

Is the canal used for boats?

Not in Chennai. The city’s wharves fell out of use decades ago, and the MRTS sits on much of the central stretch.

Information checked against official sources on 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.