CHENNAI: Urban green spaces are a soothing balm when urbanisation is relentless. What’s even better is access to these spaces — public and private parks, and playgrounds, especially in a city like Chennai, which has more than 500 public parks maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation. While several pockets of the city house these parks, the condition of many is apathetic. But hope is not just a four-letter word for the Corporation. In a bid to continue increasing the green cover and to beautify the city, the Greater Chennai Corporation is set to build three more parks.
These parks are expected to come up in Velachery, Madhavaram and Nungambakkam at a total cost of RS 1.5 crore, according to a Corporation statement. Tenders will be floated soon and the parks will be built in the next six months, said the statement. The park in Madhavaram’s SV Mani Nagar will be of 568.2 square metres (sq m) at a cost of `48 lakh. In Velachery’s GV Nagar, it will be of 724.33 sq m costing Rs 48.1 lakh, and Nungambakkam’s Rutland Gate Second Street will get the biggest park in a sprawling 1,235.65 sq m area costing Rs 53 lakh.
What to expect
Around 70 per cent of the park area is earmarked for greenery and 30 per cent is for walking path, yoga area, open gym and children’s play area. The parks will also have mulch pits and rainwater harvesting structures.
These parks are going to be built under the Union Government’s AMRUT funds, under which the civic body has built about 61 parks in the past years. Recently, owing to lack of manpower, the City Corporation had handed over 554 out of 669 parks in city limits to private contractors for maintenance. A total of 61 contractors were selected at a total contract value of about Rs 40 crore. Of the remaining parks, the civic body maintains 51 parks, and 61 parks have been adopted by local welfare associations, private people and NGOs. Three other parks have been temporarily closed.
Despite this, many parks still lack basic amenities like benches, lack of security guards and play equipment for children. Express, too, had reported earlier on the same issues.
Taking measures
“Parks are a vital recreational spot for the public and more than 50 per cent people use it. So we’ve told the private contractors to strictly ensure that basic norms are met,” said an official with Parks Department.
He added that the civic body aims to promote women and children-friendly public places. “To prevent tipplers and other miscreants entering the parks in the evening, watchmen will be there daily. This will make it safe for women to come along with their children to parks,” said the official. Officials said that the civic body has now stipulated strict norms for all contractors to abide by in maintaining the park, such as all contract staff must wear uniforms with the badge of the company and that watchmen must be aged between 18 and 50. The norms state that if the contractors don’t meet the standards, their contracts will be scrapped.
The civic body has also told contractors to be fully equipped with all gardening equipment and conduct periodical maintenance on time. Apart from this, the civic body maintains 99 centre medians, 99 traffic island parks and 163 roadside shops. The official added that works to convert garden waste into manure was on too.
Maintenance
Park size up to 300 sq km: 1 watchman-cum-sweeper
Park size up to 2,000 sq km: 2 watchmen, 1 sweeper
Park size up to 4,000 sq km: 2 watchmen, 2 sweepers
Park size up to 8,000 sq km: 2 watchmen, 2 sweepers
Park size up to 16,000 sq km: 3 watchmen, 5 sweepers
Parks up to 20,000 sq km: 3 watchmen, 6 sweepers
Parks up to 40,000 sq km: 5 watchmen, 8 sweepers
Working time
Shift 1: 5 am to 1 pm
Shift 2: 1 pm to 9 pm
Mowing & trimming
Once in 30 days during summer, once in 15 days in winter