MRC land could be city’s new lung
CHENNAI: In choosing to retrieve the 148 acres of leased land from Madras Race Club (MRC), the Tamil Nadu government might have stumbled upon a gold mine. And with it, it might have found a solution to the lung space problem of a ‘choking’ Chennai city, which accommodates over a fifth of the population of the most urbanized large state in the country.
Government Planners, when they get back to the drawing board to ruminate on the utilization of the land long lost to the elite racing aficionado but now ‘retrieved,’ should it finally happen, would do well to consider developing a Central Park in the city, replicating the New York Central Park or central parks of major cities across the world, instead of squandering the opportunity by developing vast concrete jungles. Bureaucrats involved in state policy and planning in the past also concurred that a central park was long overdue and exploiting it for any other wannabe skyscrapers would be a wasted opportunity.
One cannot avoid musing on their fears considering that Chennai only has a lung space of a little over five per cent, an abysmal low compared to some of the developed and most urbanized cities, which easily have over 20 per cent worldwide.
Former additional chief secretary of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department of Tamil Nadu Ashok Vardhan Shetty says, “The land must not be used for developing office or commercial space or even housing projects. The land must not be leased to anyone else for commercial activity. Chennai does not have enough green space. The government could develop a central park modelled after New York Central Park or Stanley Park in Vancouver with hiking trails and even allow people to go on a picnic. It would be a very useful green space in the middle of the city.”
The park would also act as a sponge absorbing rainwater and serve the purpose of a flood control measure. Ashok Vardhan Shetty said the authorities could develop artificial ponds within the park. The wooded areas absorb 5.5 times more water than the built-up area, solving the flooding problem in the neighbourhood during the rainy season.
The government could construct an auditorium and sports facilities like basketball, tennis or badminton courts dispersed across the park. In any case, the government must make it a rule of thumb that the recreational space does not occupy more than 10 to 15 per cent of the total park area, and close to 90 per cent of the park remains green and blue space, Shetty added.
The former MAWS secretary cited how major cities like London and Singapore have 27 per cent and 46 per cent lung space.