The Buckingham Canal is a 796 kilometres (494.6 mi) long fresh water navigation canal, running parallel to the Coromandel Coast of South India from Kakinada in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh to Villupuram District in Tamil Nadu. The canal connects most of the natural backwaters along the coast to the port of Chennai (Madras). It was constructed during the British Rule, and was an important waterway during the late nineteenth and the twentieth century.