Marakkanam

Town in Tamil Nadu, India

Marakkanam is a coastal panchayat town & Taluk in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is well connected to the state capital Chennai and the nearby union territory of Puducherry by the East Coast Road. To the west, Marakkanam is connected to the town of Tindivanam by the SH 134. Marakkanam is situated on the declared National Waterways NW 4. On materialisation of National Waterways NW 4, Marakkanam will be connected to two states Andhra Pradesh (Kakinada) and Puducherry through north and south of Buckingham Canal.

Marakkanam was connected to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh through the Buckingham Canal, a 420 km long fresh water navigation canal. The 110 km stretch from Marakkanam to Chennai is called South Buckingham Canal. The canal connects most of the natural backwaters along the coast to the port of Chennai (Madras). It was constructed by the British Raj, and was an important waterway during the late nineteenth and the twentieth century. Canal was formerly used to convey goods up and down, but later the usage has downgraded due to industrial pollution of water. In 2013, a violent clash occurred in this town on the basis of caste, in which two people died.

as of 2001 India census, Marakkanam had a population of 19,153. Males constitute 50% of the population and females 50%. Marakkanam has an average literacy rate of 61%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 52%. In Marakkanam, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.