The expansion of the port will be carried out on a total area of 2472.85 hectares, which includes 133.5 of the existing port´s area, 761.8 ha of government land, 781.4ha of private land and a proposed sea reclamation of 796.15 ha [4].

THE CONFLICT

However, the above plan of expansion is generating conflicts with the surrounding villages, both on the coastal villages of the seaward side depending on the land for their livelihoods as west as the western Banks of the Kosasthalaiyar river, according to activists [4]. 

According to a study by Coastal Resource Centre, a Chennai-based NGO, allowing the expansion would lead to the destruction of an ecology that sustains the livelihood of around 50,000 fisherfolk in and around the Ennore-Pulicat region. The people who stand to lose the most are the marginal farmers, inland fish workers, salt-pan and agricultural labourers and cattle-rearers living around the port. According to K. Sudhir, one of the founding members of the Concerned Youth for People (CYP) the fragile ecosystem is already destroyed due to the hot water and brine discharged from the power plants and desalination plant into Ennore Creek and Kosasthalaiyar river. According to local fisherfolks the fish taste of oil and some sections of the river don´t have water anymore, while other are so polluted with sludge that grazing cows get stuck and need to be tied and dragged [4]. 

The locals also claim that the promises of jobs were false, and the projects prefer to employ cheap labour from outside the state. Even those who were given jobs while the projects started were later asked to leave for cost-cutting purposes.

The region has seen massive industrialization in the last three decades, with the L&T shipyard and Kamarajar port, as well as the North Chennai Thermal Power Station, which is currently in the process of expanding, within a 10-km radius of the port. 

 The Project also adversely affects agriculture, another important livelihood by turning the groundwater saline. The port expansion would also cut the irrigation channels, rending the agricultural lands unusable. The common grazing land of about 342 acres would also be eaten up by the expansion. 

THE PROTESTS

As a result, locals have been vehemently protesting against this port expansion project since 2019. Activists from the Save Ennore Creek Campaign slammed the granting of the Terms of Reference for the expansion in August 2019 cautioning that this is an environmental disaster in the making [5]. They had earlier submitted a detailed memorandum citing various damages the expansion of the port will cause to the ecology, salinity intrusion and rehabilitation issues of about 50 villages [6].

In November 2019, there was a massive sit-in (dharna) with worries about the large scale imbalances the port expansion would create for the ecosystem of Pulicat lake, Ennore-Pulicat backwaters and North Chennai [7]. Jairam Ramesh, former environmental minister had also raised the issue in the parliament urging the MoEF to reject the proposal for expansion of the port [8]. In January 2020, residents of Pulicat came up with an innovative idea to protest by cooking traditional dishes from the fish, prawn and crabs which will be lost once the port is expanded destroying the Pulicat lake as well as other fragile ecosystems of the región [9]. According to environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman, "Not only would this (expansion) drastically alter India's map, it will wipe away the species in these wetlands, and then proceed to destroy the fishers, their livelihoods and the economy in Pulicat. The destruction will come in waves, with the seaside villages being directly affected and the others later." [10]. In January 2021, a public hearing for the expansion was to be held. But the government withdrew the call for public hearing under pressure from people, and multiple political parties. In the lead-up to the state elections, even the ruling party which had facilitated the project till then offered to cancel it if voted back to power.[14].  By 2021 the project was cancelled. 

The expansion of the port consists of constructing five berths with total quay length of 1,900 metres, according to the original master plan. Of this, two berths are operational while the third is under construction.

APSEZ plans to build 9,567 metres of additional quay length besides another 1,250 metres of quay for barge berths and 12 port craft facilities in phases.

The total quay length of berth proposed as a part of the revised master plan development will be 11,467 metres in addition to 1250 m long barge berths and two single point moorings or SPM’s [11]