The park on VGP Selva Nagar Second Main Road in Velachery
| Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
Diamond-shaped, a park Velachery drives a wedge between two neighbourhoods, VGP Selva Nagar and Bhuvaneshwari Nagar in topographical terms. In social terms, it brings them together. It serves as a congregating point for residents from both patches.
This park on VGP Selva Nagar Second Main Road figures in the sponge parks being developed by Greater Chennai Corporation across its limits.
Creation of ponds and trenches is central to the concept of sponge parks, believed to function like sponges: absorbing water when it is in excess and releasing it at a squeeze, when needed.
Though the park is used by residents, in its additional avatar or double role as sponge park, it is still awaiting inauguration.
Before the park is readied for the grand display, P Balashanmugasekar, president, VGP Selva Nagar, Selva Nagar Extension and huvaneshwari Nagar Residents Welfare Association, want it to be tweaked, keeping geographical realities in sight.
Balashanmugasekar underlines that Selva Nagar and Bhuvaneswari Nagar fall in the “trough of Velachery” into which rainwater flows in with the same speed with which butter travels on a skillet. Ram Nagar, exactly on the other side of Tambaram-Velachery Main Road, is part of the trough.
Stating that at VGP Selva Nagar and surrounding areas, one would strike water at a depth of ten feet, Balashanmugasekar says this pond will be filled at the slightest hint of rain. He points out issues attendant to a pond that is filled through the year.
He says residents would expect GCC to regularly clean the pond and take measures to prevent mosquito breeding in it.
Besides, from their past and continuing experiences, residents of this part of Velachery discuss regular “trysts” with snakes.
“The pond would be the right environment for water snakes. Though non-venomous, their sighting could cause a scare among visitors to the park,” says Balashanmugasekar.
They expect steel-mesh fencing, marked by small holes, around the pond, which can keep the snakes confined to the water. At present, the pond has barbed wire fencing.